» Hamilton tops FP1 as Massa crashes

Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets in the first practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix with a blistering time of 1:14.755, almost half a second quicker than last year’s FP1 time.

Nico Rosberg finished second in the other Mercedes three-tenths of a second off his teammate’s pace, while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel put in a fast lap late in the session to go third.

Only a handful of registered laps had been completed within the first 25 minutes when Felipe Massa brought out the red flag after crashing at Turn 1. The Brazilian lost control of his Williams at the end of the main straight and was sent into a spin where his rear smashed into the barrier.

Massa radioed his team once his car had come to a stop complaining that he had lost control once his DRS had deactivated, although replays suggested that the Brazilian may have taken too much track and touched the grass heading into the corner.

The session was restarted with 53 minutes to run and a queue of cars took to the track to set their initial lap times.

Kimi Räikkönen held the top spot as the session restarted followed by Valtteri Bottas, when Carlos Sainz put his Toro Rosso into the top three just under four-tenths of a second off Räikkönen’s early benchmark.

Rosberg was quick to put in his best lap which saw him go fastest on the ultra-soft tyre, although his teammate Hamilton soon demoted him to second with an impressive lap of 1:14.980 on the super-soft tyre.

The Briton then improved another two tenths while Max Verstappen registered his best time to put his Red Bull third.

Force India’s Nico Hülkenberg was another driver to post a fast lap in the later stages of the session to finish in seventh position ahead of Sainz and teammate Sergio Pérez.

Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten, just under two seconds off Hamilton’s benchmark, while his McLaren teammate Jenson Button experienced power-unit troubles with five minutes left in the session which saw his garage fill with smoke before the team sent him out for his final run.

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2016 – FREE PRACTICE 1 SESSION RESULTS
	Driver	Team / Entry	Result	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07 Hybrid	1:14.755	22
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07 Hybrid	+ 0.331	30
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H	+ 0.488	22
4.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB12	+ 0.798	29
5.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H	+ 0.863	23
6.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW38	+ 1.546	30
7.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM09	+ 1.709	24
8.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR11	+ 1.788	21
9.	Sergio Pérez	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM09	+ 1.822	25
10.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	+ 1.908	18
11.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB12	+ 1.979	28
12.	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	+ 2.033	8
13.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Ferrari VF-16	+ 2.253	22
14.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW38	+ 2.310	7
15.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR11	+ 2.555	24
16.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas F1 Ferrari VF-16	+ 2.564	24
17.	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C35	+ 3.100	21
18.	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing Mercedes MRT5	+ 3.348	21
19.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C35	+ 3.374	8
20.	Kevin Magnussen	Renault Sport F1 Team RS16	+ 3.654	13
21.	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing Mercedes MRT5	+ 3.698	30
22.	Jolyon Palmer	Renault Sport F1 Team RS16	+ 3.828	28