Mercedes’ George Russell set the pace in the second practice session for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, setting a time on 1:12.123 on Medium tyres. Mclaren’s Soft-tyre shod Lando Norris was second, just under three hundredths of a second off the pace, while Kimi Antonelli, on Softs, was third in the other Mercedes car. 

Oscar Piastri kicked things off with a conservative 1:15.400 and the McLaren driver’s time was swiftly surpassed by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and then by Mercedes’ George Russell who stopped the clock at 1:13.482. 

Lance Stroll was then forced to stop completely. The local hero went wide at the exit of Turn 7, and he slapped the wall on the left-hand side, breaking the front left suspension. He tried to drive back to the pit lane but quickly told to pull over and stop. The Canadian obliged by limping into an escape road at the Turn 10 hairpin.

As he did that, McLaren’s Lando Norris jumped to the top of the table with a time of 1:13.335 set on mediums. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen then moved clear on Soft tyres with a lap of 1:13.246 but it was Russell who stamped his authority on P1 at this point, crossing the line in 1:12.602 on C6 Soft tyres. 

Verstappen moved back up the order, to second, with a lap of 1:12.815, but as in the first session, the Dutchman was unhappy with the handling of his RB21, saying that it was “jumping like crazy at the rear”. 

The Red Bull driver was then dropped to third place by Carlos Sainz who took his Williams to within two tenths of a second of Russell using Medium tyres. 

Russell then bolted on a set of Medium tyres and the Mercedes driver lowered the benchmark by almost half a second, logging a time of 1:12.123 to cement himself into first place. Hamilton then jumped to second place, but the Ferrari driver was half a second off the pace of his former team-mate. 

Kimi Antonelli joined his Mercedes team-mate at the top of the order, with the Italian driver setting a Soft-tyre time of 1:12.411 to take P2, 0.288s off Russell. 

After a difficult opening session and a tricky start to the second hour, McLaren appeared to suddenly snap into gear and Piastri climbed to third place, 0.472 off Russell, with Lando Norris just behind his Australian team-mate. And the Briton found more pace on the third flying lap of his run, taking P2, 0.028s off Russell. 

With the session then turning towards longer runs on the Medium tyre, the timesheet froze and behind the top three of Russell, Norris and Antonelli, fourth place went to Albon, 0.322 off the pace. Fernando Alonso took fifth for Aston Martin ahead of Piastri and Sainz, while Hamilton was eighth ahead of Verstappen who ended the session 0.543 off Russell. The top ten order was rounded out by Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson. 

2025 FIA Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:12.123 33 217.678
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:12.151 0.028 32 217.593
3 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:12.411 0.288 33 216.812
4 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:12.445 0.322 36 216.710
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:12.458 0.335 31 216.671
6 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:12.562 0.439 32 216.361
7 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:12.631 0.508 37 216.155
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:12.653 0.530 34 216.090
9 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:12.666 0.543 31 216.051
10 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:12.751 0.628 30 215.799
11 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:12.799 0.676 31 215.656
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:12.874 0.751 34 215.434
13 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:12.896 0.773 32 215.369
14 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:12.914 0.791 33 215.316
15 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:12.939 0.816 35 215.242
16 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:13.080 0.957 36 214.827
17 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:13.175 1.052 33 214.548
18 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:13.898 1.775 33 212.449
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes - 2