The last hour of training before the start of qualifying in cold and wet conditions after heavy rains that hit Montreal regularly over the past few days, arrived early enough on Saturday to disrupt the procedure.
At the start of the Gilles Villeneuve track, the four Haas and Alfa Romeo cars carefully set off on extreme wet research tours, soon joined by Ferrari couple Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher of Haas immediately went on tours in 1m40s, as the puddles made the Quebec street chain particularly insidious, Magnussen stopped at 1m39,148s before heading to the garage.
While few other drivers were in a hurry to get out, a few acknowledged the need to feel the conditions, knowing that qualifying could take place in similar circumstances later.
After straightening the Turn 1/2 complex, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel found more traction to climb to the top with 1m39.041s and then 1m38.294s in 15 minutes, sparking a wave of improvements like Alfa’s Valtteri Bottas after this marked 1m .37.909s.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz drastically lowered the benchmark before half with times of 1m36.831s and 1m35.858s amid countless trips off the track by his colleagues.
Red Bull and Mercedes cars joined the battle halfway through – the Mercedes without the pair remained on the floor after muttering rival protests – although the Red Bulls did not initially set laps.
Instead, Vettel continued to accumulate mileage and the four-time world champion also ranked with 1m35.821s with 20 minutes to go.
The German began trading the fastest times with Alonso of Alpine in what looked like an echo of a previous era, with Alonso’s 1m33.836s giving him the lead in the last 10 minutes as both drivers switched to intermediate.
Magnussen caused the most notable incident of the session by continuing straight into Turn 1 and then crossing the track, keeping his Haas close to Tecpro’s barriers, while forcing Russell to avoid action.
Minutes later, world champion Max Verstappen suffered a similar fright after turning in turn 2 on intermediate, and the Dutchman also escaped without damage.
In the last seconds, Pierre Gasley of AlphaTauri took the second leader in the split of the session Alonso and Vettel.
Esteban Ocon finished fourth, followed by McLaren duo Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris. George Russell was the first of the extremely wet runners in seventh place.
The Red Bull duo of Sergio Perez and Verstappen were eighth and ninth, ahead of Sainz.
Alfa Romeos were next with Botas and Zhou Guanyu in 11th and 12th place, with Lance Stroll back in 13th and Magnussen 14th.
Hamilton had another difficult session in 15th place, followed by Williams by Alex Albon and AlphaTauri by Tsunoda.
Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi’s second Williams faded in the 18th and 19th.
Leclerc, who will start from the back of the grid after taking his fourth Ferrari engine of the season, has made five laps without setting a lap time for the 20th.
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