MONTREAL — Mercedes driver George Russell led Friday’s second practice session for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Russell turned a lap of 1 minute and 12.123 seconds to edge McLaren racer Lando Norris by a mere .028 seconds.
“It might be my first time top of the leaderboard the whole year! 10 races in… no, obviously we’ve had a very positive day.
“We had higher expectations coming into this weekend because of the cooler conditions. The track’s quite smooth so the tires naturally run quite cold and we know our weakness, which is when it’s hot, we struggle and when it’s cold, the tires run cold, we’re pretty competitive.”
Kimi Antonelli turned the third best lap in the session in the second Mercedes entry.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc sat out the session because of damage to the chassis on his car suffered in a crash during the opening practice session.
Fourth on the timesheets was Williams driver Alexander Albon, while Fernando Alonso was fifth for Aston Martin.
Norris’ teammate, series point leader Oscar Piastri, was sixth quickest.
Lance Stroll – who managed to return for his home race after missing out on the Spanish Grand Prix due to wrist pain – made contact with the barrier and snapped his suspension, forcing him to park up with a dislodged front-left wheel.
