Fernando Alonso dominated the Friday practice time sheets in Montreal, staying half a second clear of the field in the afternoon 90-minute session.
There were several incidents; Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen broke his suspension after nudging the wall, and Jarno Trulli had to stop his Toyota after incurring similar damage by bouncing across the high kerbs.
It is believed that teammate Ralf Schumacher’s practice time was also cut short as a safety precaution.
Adrian Sutil nearly fell victim to the famous Champion’s Wall, after getting some serious air-time over the final chicane. BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica spun in the second chicane, after missing the whole morning session with a mechanical problem.
Nico Rosberg, having deferred to the team’s Japanese test driver in the morning, then got his Canadian campaign off to a rocky start when he also experienced technical trouble after just 25 laps.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen had a spin en-route to fourth quickest, nearly a second off the leading pace set by Alonso’s McLaren.
Felipe Massa was second best in the other red car, while Lewis Hamilton did enough only for third, eight tenths behind his championship leading teammate.
Canadian GP, second free practise
1 F. Alonso McLaren 1:16.550 37
2 F. Massa Ferrari 1:17.090 34
3 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:17.307 36
4 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:17.515 37
5 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:17.827 42
6 N. Rosberg Williams 1:17.992 25
7 R. Barrichello Honda 1:18.108 38
8 G. Fisichella Renault 1:18.130 40
9 M. Webber Red Bull 1:18.181 40
10 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:18.309 38
11 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:18.316 40
12 R. Kubica BMW 1:18.399 29
13 J. Button Honda 1:18.474 36
14 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.493 33
15 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:18.545 35
16 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.602 37
17 A. Wurz Williams 1:18.871 25
18 J. Trulli Toyota 1:18.895 16
19 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:19.331 16
20 C. Albers Spyker F1 1:19.453 38
21 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:19.662 25
22 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:20.519 13
