Can Anyone Stop Antonelli in Montreal? The Championship Leader Storms Canadian GP FP1

Montreal has a well earned reputation for strange things happening on race weekends. Sudden rain, walls that appear from nowhere, and animals crossing the track. This Friday, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve delivered on its promise of chaos from the very first minute of the weekend’s only free practice session. Three red flags, 22 drivers trying to learn a dirty circuit in record time, a groundhog that produced the most bizarre moment of the year, and at the end of it all, Kimi Antonelli looking down from the top of the timesheets with a 1:13.402 and a margin that left the paddock silent.

The 2026 Canadian Grand Prix is a sprint weekend. That means one single free practice session before sprint qualifying begins later the same Friday. One hour. One attempt. No safety net. In that context, every lap counts double because each learning run is irreplaceable and every mechanical problem carries an enormous price.

Mercedes arrived in Montreal with the biggest news in the paddock this week: the largest upgrade package of the 2026 season. The Brackley team brought to Canada modifications in aerodynamics, floor and airflow management that engineers had been preparing since the opening races of the year. The question was obvious: would it work from the very first moment?

The answer arrived before the session ended.

The session that did not start as anyone expected

All 22 cars headed out onto the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on a dirty circuit with no rubber on the asphalt. That is standard at any first session of a weekend, but at Montreal it carries particular implications: the 4.361-kilometre layout built on the Île Notre Dame, with its long straights, violent braking zones and the famous final chicane with the Wall of Champions waiting for anyone who makes a mistake, punishes errors with a speed and brutality that offers no second chance.

The opening minutes passed with relative normality. George Russell led early with a 1:15.893 while teams fitted hard tyres for the first reference stints. Kimi Antonelli moved in and out of the top with times suggesting pace without showing everything. Oscar Piastri was the first to dip under the 1:15 mark with a 1:14.963 on the hard tyre, drawing attention to the McLaren on a circuit where aerodynamic efficiency matters as much as straight-line power.

Then came the first red flag. Liam Lawson stopped on track with what appeared to be a power steering failure in his Racing Bulls. The car was left stranded in a zone that forced a session stoppage. The FIA added four minutes to the total time. First setback of the weekend for a driver who needed to make the most of every lap at a circuit that will also host the second F2 2026 round this same weekend.

Action resumed with the field seeking better references on the medium compound. And that was when something happened that nobody could have written into the pre-weekend script.

The groundhog and the destroyed Williams

Alex Albon was completing a lap at the exit of Turn 6/7 when an animal crossed his path. Not a stray dog, not a bird. A groundhog, the North American rodent that shares habitat with humans in Quebec and that on Friday decided the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was a good place to cross. Albon tried to avoid it. He could not. The Williams hit the barrier with significant damage to the front of the car.

The scene went viral within minutes. Albon’s car rested against the second sector wall, the driver climbed out uninjured, and the entire paddock reacted with a mixture of relief and uncontrollable humour at the strangest incident of the 2026 season. The FIA declared a red flag and added fifteen additional minutes to the session.

What is less funny for the Williams team is the technical context: repairing the car in sprint weekend time is an enormous challenge, with sprint qualifying scheduled just a few hours after FP1 ended. Albon, who had posted fourteenth fastest with +3.240 seconds to Antonelli, was left without valuable track time at the most critical moment of the weekend.

Franco Colapinto, Albon’s teammate at Alpine, had his own problem: his power unit gave him issues from the start of the session and he failed to complete a timed lap. The Argentine did not set a time in Canadian GP FP1, a weekend where he should feel particularly motivated given the Canadian crowd’s warmth toward Latin American drivers.

The third red flag and the Ocon incident

If the groundhog was the most viral moment, the third red flag was the most costly in sporting terms. Esteban Ocon in the Haas lost control at the final chicane, touched the wall and caused another red flag period with debris on track. Ocon reportedly lost the front end of his car in a corner that should not have been problematic.

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu had publicly and emphatically denied rumours of an early Ocon departure from the team in the days before the weekend. That kind of incident does not help calm the waters. For Ocon, the session ended with thirteenth fastest and the certainty that Saturday’s sprint will be difficult from an unfavourable starting position.

Antonelli and the message to the championship

When the track was clear and the soft tyres went onto the clean asphalt, the session showed its true face. Kimi Antonelli found a different level from the rest. The 1:13.402 with which he closed the session left him 0.142 seconds ahead of Russell, who had tried to match the Italian and could not.

What makes that time especially significant is the context: Antonelli arrives in Canada as championship leader with a 20-point advantage over Russell, comes off three consecutive Grand Prix victories, and Mercedes had just unveiled their biggest upgrade package of the year. The sum of those factors on a circuit that has historically favoured cars with good aerodynamic efficiency and strong braking performance is a combination that worries the rest of the paddock.

Lewis Hamilton was third for Ferrari with +0.774 seconds, driving at the circuit where he won his first Grand Prix in 2007 with McLaren, when he was 22 years old and the world was only beginning to know his name. Charles Leclerc was fourth at 0.953 seconds. Ferrari showed more solid pace than in Miami, where both drivers had struggled to get close to Mercedes’ speed.

Max Verstappen was fifth at 0.964 seconds from the leader, reporting during the session complaints about heavy steering and snapping from the Red Bull. The Dutchman continues searching for the balance the RB22 has not yet found under the 2026 regulations, and Montreal, with its braking and traction demands, is not the most forgiving circuit for a car with unresolved mechanical issues.

Lando Norris was sixth for McLaren with +1.397 seconds and Oscar Piastri seventh at 1.561 seconds. The Woking outfit has room to improve and in pure qualifying conditions the MCL40 may be closer, but FP1 suggested Mercedes has a real advantage with the upgrades.

Arvid Lindblad took the best Racing Bulls result in eighth, an interesting data point for the young driver completing his first full Formula 1 season. Nico Hülkenberg of Audi was ninth and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin completed the top 10 at 2.461 seconds.

What comes next

Sprint qualifying arrived just hours after FP1 ended. With only one reference session and a circuit that still needed more rubber to show its best version, teams had to make setup decisions with incomplete information. That is the reality of sprint weekends: uncertainty is part of the game.

Mercedes, with Antonelli leading and Russell as the consistent reference, arrives at sprint qualifying in the paddock’s strongest position. If the upgrades perform as well in qualifying as they did in FP1, the updated W17 could be virtually untouchable in Montreal conditions.

The 2026 Canadian Grand Prix starts on Sunday May 24 at 2:50 PM Eastern time. At the Wall of Champions, the groundhog has already retired to quieter surroundings.

Key quotes and curiosities

Kimi Antonelli after FP1: we took the right direction with the upgrades. The car feels more connected through direction changes and we have confidence for the sprint.

George Russell on the chaotic session: with three red flags you cannot learn the circuit the way you need to. But the car’s pace is good and that is what matters.

Lewis Hamilton at Montreal, the circuit of his first F1 victory in 2007: this place will always have something special for me. It brings back memories that are priceless.

Max Verstappen on the Red Bull’s behaviour: the steering is very heavy and the car tends to move when you do not want it to. We still have work to do.

Among the curiosities: Albon’s groundhog is not the first animal to interrupt a Formula 1 session. In 2017 a kangaroo crossed in front of cars at a Pirelli test circuit in Australia. And in multiple Canadian GP editions there have been incidents with birds trapped in driver cockpits. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, built on the Île Notre-Dame in the St. Lawrence River, is a natural ecosystem that has coexisted with the asphalt since 1978. The 2026 Canadian Grand Prix is the seventh round of the calendar and the second sprint weekend of the season after Miami.

FP1 RESULTS TABLE — CANADIAN GP 2026

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal — May 22, 2026 — Session extended by 19 minutes due to three red flags

Sources: Formula1.com, The Race, RacingNews365, Planet F1, Crash.net, Total Motorsport, GPBlog, Motorsport Week, ScuderiaFans

What did you make of the 2026 Canadian GP practice session? Do you think Mercedes can keep dominating with their new upgrades, or can the sprint shake things up on Saturday? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.