British champion Lewis Hamilton topped the timings during an extended second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, which was marked by two red flags and late rain impacting the flow of the session. Hamilton clocked the fastest time with a 1:13.718, closely followed by his Mercedes teammate, George Russell, who was just 0.027 seconds behind the leader. Completing the top five were the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, with times of +0.126s and +0.376s respectively, separated by the upgraded Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.
Practice 2 was extended by half an hour, increasing the scheduled running time from 60 to 90 minutes, after Practice 1 was interrupted due to problems with the CCTV equipment around the track. This led to packed schedules in the pit lane as the drivers reacquainted themselves with the Montreal venue and the teams tried to gather as much data as possible.
Warm but rain-threatening conditions led to different run plan approaches during the first third of the session, with some drivers opting for shorter stints and others for longer stints using a mix of soft and medium compound tires. However, the soft-shod runs were influenced by several factors. Red flags were triggered by Nico Hulkenberg coming to a halt with smoke coming from the back of his Haas, and Esteban Ocon being told to stop his Alpine in the middle sector due to a suspected loss of water pressure, before a rain shower hit the track in the final 10 minutes.
While there were several improvements shortly before the weather conditions deteriorated, Red Bull had long switched their focus to longer runs on medium tires, leaving world champion Max Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez in sixth and eighth place respectively. Valtteri Bottas placed his Alfa Romeo between the Red Bulls in seventh place, as the other Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and Gasly's repaired Alpine rounded out the top 10 positions.
Alex Albon was placed 17th as Williams trialed a raft of new parts on his car, while Ocon and Hulkenberg took the 18th and 20th places respectively after their aforementioned problems, and Hulkenberg's teammate, Logan Sargeant, who was not running any updates, ended the day in 19th position.
Drivers and teams will debrief their altered Friday run into the night before returning to the track for the final practice at 1230 local time on Saturday, followed by the all-important qualifying session at 1600.
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