Verstappen fastest in first F1 free practice

The defending champion was consistently at the forefront of the times at Montreal, which makes its first appearance on the calendar since 2019.

Verstappen kicked off the weekend during which he is set to make his 150th GP start by lapping 0.25s ahead of the fastest Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso third to pip Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc.

While the threat of rain was only calculated at 20% for the session, the looming grey clouds led to a flurry of on-track activity as soon as the one-hour countdown begun.

Yuki Tsunoda was followed out into the windy conditions by the Alfa Romeos and Daniel Ricciardo as only the Williams duo and Alonso initially stayed put in their garages.

And of those to head straight out, all bar Tsunoda and Leclerc (both on softs) emerged sporting a set of the yellow-walled medium compound C4 Pirelli tyres.

The initial markers flirted around the low 1m20s and high 1m19s effort before Verstappen started to markedly lower the pace as he posted a 1m17.991s to sit 1.4s clear of Lewis Hamilton.

Valtteri Bottas, Ricciardo and Sainz all lapped around a second adrift of Verstappen before Hamilton cut down to a 1m18.613s to close the gap to six tenths.

All 20 cars had ventured out after six minutes to maximise track time following the Thursday evening downpours, before Bottas climbed to the top with his 1m17.902s effort.

Verstappen at this point was on a cool lap to reenergise his tyres but then promptly smashed the fastest second and third sectors to retake first place on a 1m16.507. That duly decimated Bottas’ time by 1.4s.

The first meaningful run from Monaco winner Sergio Perez moved the Mexican half a second in arrears of his teammate until Verstappen teed up another flying lap.

The RB18 driver completed a sector clean sweep at that stage to dip down to 1m15.799s, initially pushing him 1.2s clear of Perez at the top of the leaderboard.

Verstappen found another nine hundredths with his next attempt before Perez ran to the top after 14 minutes thanks to a 1m15.660s, which promptly placed him four hundredths ahead.

After the hectic start to proceedings, track activity virtually died out after the first third of the session before Perez then Verstappen switched to the soft tyres after 28 minutes.

However, Verstappen made a swift return to the Red Bull garage as a rear anti-roll bar glitch caused his inside wheel to lift.

But after Sainz had gone top with a 1m15.441s to sit a tenth clear of Perez, Verstappen – despite conceding the…