Raikkonen fastest in second practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Kimi Raikkonen put Ferrari in front in the second free practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend while the battle for Canada appeared to intensify, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen closing in to approach the performance of Ferrari and Mercedes.

The top 5, including both Ferrari and Mercedes cars, joined with Max Verstappen were separated by less than half a second. Behind that leading pack, Felipe Massa led the 'best of the rest', albeit already more than a second down on today's pace setter.

Fernando Alonso bounced back from the troublesome first practice to go 7th fastest, despite again missing the first half of the session as his mechanics continued to fix the hydraulic issues that sidelined him in FP1.

Esteban Ocon was 8th fastest, followed by Kvyat and Perez who completed the top 10. Just like in first practice, this meant that both Force India cars made it into the top 10.

A large number of minor incidents dominated the session, with particularly Romain Grosjean spinning multiple times. Numerous others had off track excursions as well, but all managed to escape without damage to their cars. The technical issues this session were to be found on the Red Bull cars, with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo suffering a suspected engine failure after just 8 laps.

Max Verstappen had a more productive session, but he too suffered technical issues and brought out the red flags as he lost drive 20 minutes from the end of the session.