F1, unforeseen in Montreal: long red flag, first free practice cut off

Long red flag in Montreal

An unforeseen incident, probably due to some power surges, affected the first free practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix at the Montreal circuit named after Gilles Villeneuve: the circuit’s security cameras stopped working, forcing the marshals to pull all the cars back into the pits.

The red flag had actually been raised initially for a problem with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, which was forced to stop on the bordostrada at 7:35 p.m. Italian time. After about half an hour, while insiders were wondering why it was not resuming despite the trouble-free removal of the French team’s car, the FIA’s communication regarding the safety cameras, the proper functioning of which is among the conditions without which it is not possible to go on the track.

As per the regulations, the stopwatch continued to run, coming to an end without the possibility, on the part of the twenty drivers, to make more laps: for the record, the best time was that of Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo, 1:18.728), a result that was hardly indicative given that some drivers (such as Ferraristi Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz) had only run a couple of break-in laps, others such as Max Verstappen had not pushed particularly hard, and still others, such as the two Mercedes standard-bearers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, had not even made it in time to record a time trial.