Formula 1 got off just one practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, Canada on Friday as the first practice session was called off because of a problem with the circuit's CCTV system. Only 12 drivers completed a timed lap and of the others, three did not even make it out of pit lane.

The stewards decided to extend the second session by 30 minutes, bringing the start forward to 16.30. Furthermore, in order to make up as much time as possible, it was decided that, instead of returning tyre sets in the usual way at the end of the first session, they could be kept until two hours after the end of the second one.

Just 30 minutes after the light went green at the end of pit lane, the second session was stopped when Nico Hulkenberg's Haas suffered a power unit failure on the main straight. With just under 50 minutes remaining, another red flag, another Alpine, Esteban Ocon this time, stopped on track with a technical problem.

In the final ten minutes, the weather worsened as the wind picked up and the rain intensified, so that half the field went out on intermediate tyres for at least one lap to see how they felt.

The various stoppages and rain meant that all the work had to be squeezed into 73 minutes of track time in the dry, when the 20 drivers worked in preparation for qualifying, running the C5 compound and on race pace, mainly opting for the C4, with only the Ferrari pair trying the C3 on medium length runs.

"It was a slightly odd day with FP1 effectively cancelled and FP2 affected by rain," said Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance for Williams Racing. "We got most of the work done as we had intended, but stopped the low fuel running early in FP2 to concentrate on the high fuel work."

Sunday's Grand Prix will be the 42nd time that the Canadian Grand Prix has been held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada.

At the end of the day the Silver Arrows of Mercedes ran the two quickest times with Lewis Hamilton just 27-hundredths quicker than his teammate George Russell.

"After the non-running in FP1, we decided to start our FP2 programme with high fuel work before moving on to low fuel running," Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director. "That was to ensure we completed our long runs before the expected rain fell."

"We were an outlier in that respect and our low fuel work therefore benefited from more track evolution than the rest of the field. That was the predominant reason as to why we finished at the top of the time sheets," said Shovlin.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso ran fourth quickest sandwiched between the SF-23's of Ferrari Racing with Carlos Sainz third and Charles Leclerc fifth.

"With hardly any track time in FP1, it meant that FP2 was particularly busy but we managed to try all three dry weather compounds, as well as various set-ups on the car to improve performance," said Carlos Sainz.

"We made good progress over the course of the day. The result is quite positive, even if we still need to find a bit of pace and performance going into tomorrow," said Sainz.

The top two drivers in points, Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, ran sixth and eighth quickest on Friday.

Practice 3 is scheduled for 12:30pm local time on Saturday followed by qualifying at 4pm.

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:13.718	132.332 mph
2	Russell		Mercedes	1:13.745	0.027
3	Sainz		Ferrari		1:13.844	0.126
4	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:14.044	0.326
5	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:14.094	0.376
6	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:14.142	0.424
7	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:14.220	0.502
8	Perez		Red Bull	1:14.250	0.532
9	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:14.419	0.701
10	Gasly		Alpine		1:14.477	0.759
11	Piastri		McLaren		1:14.533	0.815
12	Magnussen	Haas		1:14.544	0.826
13	Norris		McLaren		1:14.617	0.899
14	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:14.811	1.093
15	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:14.941	1.223
16	de Vries	AlphaTauri	1:15.002	1.284
17	Albon		Williams	1:15.003	1.285
18	Ocon		Alpine		1:15.092	1.374
19	Sargeant	Williams	1:15.426	1.708
20	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:16.369	2.651

(image provided by  Alpine F1 Media)