Mercedes dominated the opening practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix with a margin of 1.5s between Lewis Hamilton in first and Romain Grosjean's Lotus in third.
The track offered very little grip throughout the session, with a number of drivers spinning during the 90 minutes, including Hamilton at the hairpin. None of the mistakes resulted in contact with the barriers and all 20 cars managed to notch up more than 20 laps by the time the chequered flag fell. Hamilton's spin was quite representative of the problems the drivers faced on Friday morning as the rear of his Mercedes clumsily overtook the front at low speed in the hairpin. He faced the wrong direction long enough for Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to whiz past before correcting the 180 degree spin with a pirouette in the run-off area.
By the end of the session, Hamilton's best time was 0.415s quicker than Rosberg's and Mercedes-powered cars filled the top four places on a circuit where BHP is king. More is expected to come from Ferrari as grip levels improve and Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen get the full benefit of the team's updated V6 later in the weekend. For what it's worth, Vettel was 1.693s off Hamilton during FP1 and Raikkonen 2.227s off the lead Mercedes.
The highest Renault-powered car was Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull with a time 1.809s off Hamilton. Fernando Alonso made sure all four engine suppliers were represented in the top ten with a time 1.916s off the pace in his McLaren Honda. The Honda power unit has also benefited from development tokens being spent ahead of the weekend, but the team has been keen to play down the overall effect it will have on car performance.
Valtteri Bottas was just outside the top ten, but won ESPN's award for the neatest spin of the session after losing the rear of his Williams on the entry to Turn 6 and gathering it back together to park the car just short of the grass on the entrance to Turn 7. He continued on his way but will be hoping to be further up the timesheets when it matters later in the weekend.