Canada GP FP1 summary and results: Verstappen tops, Hulkenberg retires

Max Verstappen proved to be the quickest man on the grid in FP1 from the Canadian Grand Prix, as the Dutchman kept Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo behind him on P2 and P3 respectively.

Before the light turned green, Max Verstappen was the first one to queue up in the pitlane. The Dutchman has a point to prove this weekend as the criticism on his driving style has peaked this week, with Verstappen saying he will "headbutt" the next person to ask about his crashes. However, Verstappen was the last person to put a time on the board.

As the session unfolded, the McLaren cars took charge early on. Fernando Alonso took P1 from Daniel Ricciardo and was soon accompanied by his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne. It stayed like this for a while, as the session was suspended for a long time after about 25 minutes.

The cause of the problem was Nico Hulkenberg. The German suddenly lost his gearbox and stood still in the middle of the track. His engine was still running, but he couldn't get his gear out of neutral. The red flag was waved and the session was suspended for almost fifteen minutes. Hulkenberg would not return.

After the break, Mercedes put their foot down. Although they were on supersofts and Alonso on hypersofts, the Silver Arrows took a one-two. It was Max Verstappen, however, who broke that duck, as the 20-year-old raced to P1 in his second hot lap by over half a second difference. Again, Verstappen was on hyper softs and the rest on ultra softs, but P1 is P1. Ricciardo wedged himself between the Mercedes cars to take P3 (on hyper softs as well).

Debutant Nicholas Latifi had a disappointing outing. The Canadian got to drive in Sergio Perez's place for Force India but was the slowest of the session by quite some distance. Nerves or lack of skill?

The last two minutes saw Williams rookie Sergey Sirotkin hit the wall, causing a yellow flag. An unnecessary spin from the Russian, but no real damage was done to the FW41.

All in all an encouraging outing from Verstappen, who must feel good by being the quickest man on the track after all the drama from the last few days and weeks. Ferrari were nowhere near close enough, and Mercedes haven't even tried the hyper softs as they still struggle with them. Could Red Bull make it back-to-back wins on Sunday?