F1 Canadian GP live commentary and updates - FP2

And that's it for Friday practice! Thanks for joining us once again, and join us again tomorrow for the double-header of Le Mans and F1 across Autosport and Motorsport.com.

See you tomorrow!

And now begins the social media race for the teams to post their positional graphics - McLaren might not be top of the session, but their graphic designers apparently have the quickest hands after FP2.

Fill in two numbers to the pre-prepared .psd, save as "MCL_CANADA_FP2_v11_FINAL_FINAL.jpg" and job done!

Alonso's stuck to a long stint on softs - without Stroll to feed any data in, Aston Martin's tyre exploration is a touch one-dimensional.

Meanwhile, Bortoleto gets annoyed by Sainz baulking him at the chicane, complaining that the Williams driver is braking and then accelerating to stay ahead.

Currently, Norris is lapping in the 1m16.1s, with the two Mercs circulating in the 1m16.3s and 4s. Verstappen's laps are in the mix too. 

We'll have a deeper look at the practice pace overnight, which will be available on Autosport tomorrow morning. 

Verstappen approaches the Turn 13-14 chicane quite slowly, but still can't get the car into the corner.

"When the brakes are cold, it doesn't bite - it's worse than FP1," he reports. 

Current top 10 standings in FP2

Since we are, indeed, doing race sims, let's have a quick run-through the order (even though it's at the top in our nifty little graphic above!)

1. Russell, 2. Norris, 3. Antonelli, 4. Albon, 5. Alonso, 6. Piastri, 7. Sainz, 8. Hamilton, 9. Verstappen, 10. Lawson.

We appear to be in the realm of race-style runs now, as nobody else is improving. Alonso tried to improve on the softs with another fast lap, but crossed the line 0.3s off his personal best.

The field from first to 17th is separated by just over a second - with Colapinto a further 0.7s back.

Albon and Alonso move up to fourth and fifth. With 20 (ish) minutes still remaining, Russell is still top on the medium tyre, with Norris, Antonelli, Albon, and Alonso completing that top five.

"I think I'm just going to stay out there and start blocking people for fun," Lawson says on the radio. He is calmly dissuaded doing so by his engineer.

Still, traffic paradise - as Tsunoda might call it. Or as Homer Simpson might put it: gas, brake, honk. Gas, brake, honk. Honk, honk, punch.

Norris is picking up the pace now, a 1m12.151s to get within a sniff of Russell's aftershave on the top of the timesheets. That's a bit more what we're used to seeing.

Sainz goes up to fifth in the meantime, as Williams continues to hang towards the top.

Antonelli's up to second, 0.288s slower than Russell - albeit on softs. Norris also improves, moving up to third place - 0.479s off Russell's pace - before Piastri usurps his team-mate for the provisional FP2 bronze medal.

Lawson almost careens into the back of Colapinto at Turn 6, as the Argentine was dawdling on the racing line. His team-mate Hadjar also makes some choice gestures at a Sauber ahead of him on the road.

"They need to buy mirrors," concurs engineer Pierre Hamelin.

Hamilton goes up to second fastest, but is 0.530s off Russell's headliner. Norris, meanwhile, only moves up to eighth - it's only practice, but is McLaren struggling to find the pace here?

Russell sets a 1m12.123s on the mediums to go a fair lick faster - now, just 0.123s off his pole time from 2024.

Albon has responded with a purple first sector, but drops off towards the end of the lap as he goes too deep into the final chicane - meanwhile, his ex-team-mate Colapinto has his second Turn 2 spin of the weekend. 

Alonso has the run of the track to himself as the session undergoes a bit of a lull - and improves to fourth with a 1m12.882s. 

He's now rejoined on track with a few more drivers sporting the softs - Hamilton and Antonelli have opted for some C6s. 

Current FP2 top 10 standings

1. Russell, 2. Sainz, 3. Verstappen, 4. Hadjar, 5. Alonso, 6. Albon, 7. Tsunoda, 8. Norris, 9. Hamilton, 10. Gasly.

The Spaniards both find some improvement - Sainz goes up to second, splitting bessie mates Russell and Verstappen on the medium tyre.

Alonso goes up to fifth, half a second off Russell's current pace.

Russell improved to a 1m12.602s, as Verstappen goes up to second - he does a 1m12.815s. 

Hadjar moves up to fourth, as Racing Bulls get a decent lap in for this session.

"I need some help with the last corner, trying to figure out why the rear keeps kicking out," Hamilton reports.

Rear-end grip remains low, as the track surface does not appear particularly forgiving.

"The car is jumping crazy at the rear," Verstappen reports - something you'd want from a kangaroo, but not an F1 car.

Sainz goes up to second on the mediums, 0.146s behind Russell's current benchmark.

Stroll, who came into this round after a procedure to his hand, exited Turn 7 and knocked the outside wall.

Engineer Gary Gannon tells Stroll to park up, as the rules (arguably set after last year's race when Sergio Perez drove around to the pits with a lot of damage to his Red Bull) no longer allow you to trundle around with heavy damage.

Hamilton has a second attempt and posts a 1m14.597s - Gasly goes second, 0.107s behind. Early laps are coming in on the medium tyre, although Albon on softs posts a 1m13.942s - which is just 0.8s off Verstappen's headline time from FP1. 

We should hit the 1m12s in due course.

Piastri kicks us off with a 1m15.400s, which is a start - but over two seconds shy of the pace from FP1 as the drivers build up in these early stages.

A bit more of a mix of tyres already in this session; we saw mostly C6s in FP1, but we've got a suite of mediums and hards in these early runs.

Hamilton starts a lap on mediums, but goes slightly wide in Turn 8.

The TV feed is showing the work being done to Leclerc's car - after his Turn 3 crash in FP1, he'll take no part in this session as he needs a new survival cell.

That'll make his weekend a lot more difficult, as he's had minimal running thus far.

Montreal track guide

Watch: 2025 Canadian GP track guide

10 minutes until FP2

Not long now until Friday's second practice session of the day - and as always, we'll be with you every step of the way.

Hey, that rhymed. I'm a poet and I didn't...uh...notice?

Leclerc confirmed out for FP2

Ferrari has issued this statement: "Due to the damage to his car sustained in the crash in FP1, Charles Leclerc will not take part in FP2, as the survival cell on his SF-25 needs to be replaced. As per the regulations, Charles will be able to drive in FP3."

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Vasseur hits out over media rumours over Ferrari future

Following reports in some Italian media outlets that Fred Vasseur's job at Ferrari might be on the line, the Frenchman unleashed a stinging riposte.

"I don't know the target, I don't understand the target, perhaps it is to give shit to the team, but in this case, I don't see the point.

"Perhaps it's for them the only way to exist. This is probably more the reason. But it's really hurting the team. It's at one stage it's a lack of focus and when you are fighting for the championship, every single detail makes a difference.

"And from the beginning of the weekend we are just speaking about this and if it's their target to put the team in this situation, they reached their goal, but I think it's really...it's not like this that we'll be able to win a championship and at least not with this kind of journalists around us."

He later added: "Consider that it's that we are speaking about people, we are not speaking about things, and I think everybody needs to have a bit of respect."

Just 30 minutes until FP2 gets underway in Canada. We should get a bit more of a representative session in terms of quali and race pace - as FP1 was largely spent with longer runs on the C6s.