The FP1 in F1 Canadian GP was headed by Valtteri Bottas from Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, but there was not much running due to CCTV issue. 

The to be predicted lone dry session in F1 Canadian GP saw an early red flag. Initially, it was believed to be for the stricken Alpine of Pierre Gasly with suspected driveshaft problem, but the delay was eventually caused by infrastructural issues posing a safety problem.

The CCTV around the circuit wasn’t working which initially delayed the session for long. There was a sync issue with the CCTV structure and due to the gap between FP1 and FP2 needing to be 2.5 hours, they couldn’t extend the FP1 session.

The discussions were already on about extending the FP2 session by the time the race control started to drop messages. “The session restart has been delayed due to issues with the local CCTV,” said a note from F1 initially. “The local organisers are working to resolve the issue and until that time we can’t restart for safety reasons.”

An additional information from the FIA then stated: “The delay will be longer as the CCTV is not synced correctly and until the issue has been fixed we cannot run on track. This system is a local installation and the clock will continue to run down on FP1 and the session won’t be extended as there must be 2.5 hours between FP1 and FP2.

“We are looking at options to extend FP2.” Eventually, the clock did run down with Alfa Romeo’s Bottas on top after his 1m18.728s lap ahead of Aston Martin of Stroll and Alonso. The Red Bull pair of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen slotted in fourth and fifth.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was sixth. The Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg then slotted in seventh and eighth, with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu in ninth from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries.

These were the only drivers to have set a lap time with some of them not even venturing out by the time the red flag was out. With no running done, the FIA confirmed adding 30 minutes to FP2 running with an early start at 16:30 local time than 17:00.

Meanwhile, in terms of new PU elements confirmed during the session, the Ferrari pair of Leclerc and Sainz took new ICE along with Tsunoda and Albon. Apart from that, both Tsunoda and Albon took a new TC along with MGU-H and MGU-K.

Here’s details of new PU elements: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Canadian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20New%20PU%20elements%20for%20this%20Competition.pdf

 

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