Canadian Grand Prix 2016 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's F1 Practice

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time during Friday's first and second practice sessions of Formula One's 2016 Canadian Grand Prix.

The reigning World Champion was over three-tenths of a second faster than team-mate Nico Rosberg and half a second faster than Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel during the opening session, and he was untouchable again in the second, with Vettel going faster than Rosberg.

The rest of the pack sat well behind the top three, although a number of incidents impacted the opening session, and the second saw most drivers prioritise simulations over fast laps.

Here's a look at the practice times and a recap of each session.

FP2 Recap

Here's a look at the final results for the second practice session, via Formula One's official Twitter account:

The drivers opted to simulate the qualifying sessions with the soft compound tyres before switching to the ultrasofts after 20 minutes, and once again, Hamilton showed his class.

While team-mate Rosberg set the initial fastest time, the current world champion went over half a second faster on his first lap at full-speed, and he could have gone even faster two laps later, but he missed the final chicane.

Not everything went perfectly for Hamilton, however. The Brit switched to race simulations at the midway point of the session, but his tyres wore out much quicker than expected, and he lasted just 12 laps before returning to the pits.

Kimi Raikkonen didn't have a good outing on the ultrasofts and spent a large portion of the session in last place, but team-mate Vettel fared better, eventually moving past Rosberg in the standings.

In the background, several drivers came close to hitting the dreaded Wall of Champions, with Jenson Button giving the wall a small kiss and McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso showing his skills to avoid a collision.

Even the guys at Mercedes were impressed:

Formula One's official Twitter account shared this image, showing just how close the Spaniard came to a crash:

With 20 cars on the track toward the end of the session, most running race simulations, things got a little crowded, and top times were rare. Hamilton overshot the final chicane on two consecutive laps, and Vettel voiced his displeasure with the traffic in multiple occasions.

Romain Grosjean went off the track to bring out the yellow flags in the final minutes of the session, but major damage was avoided.

FP1 Recap

Here are the full results, via BBC Sport:

The first of Friday's two sessions started at a slow pace, with the majority of the drivers staying inside after their installation lap, and an early crash from Felipe Massa didn't help matters. The Brazilian hit the wall at speed with the rear of his car.

Red flags came out immediately, and Williams' official Twitter account explained what happened:

All in all, it was an eventful session for Williams, as team-mate Valtteri Bottas nearly found himself involved in a crash as well. Red Bull youngster Max Verstappen hit the breaks right on the apex of a chicane, and the Finn had to do the same to avoid a major collision.

Per Channel 4 F1, he had his say about Verstappen's manoeuvre:

Ferrari sat at the top of the timesheets early, but Hamilton moved into the top spot after his first lap on the supersofts, clocking a time of one minute, 14.980 seconds. Rosberg didn't come anywhere close to that time initially, moving in third place behind Verstappen, who somehow set a faster lap on the soft compound.

But the first practice session was dominated by questionable manoeuvres and near-crashes, more than lap times. Several riders, including Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Alonso, tested just how late they could break into the final chicane, with nearly all of them missing the turn completely on at least one occasion.

Alonso and Hamilton nearly made contact going into the turn as well, prompting this tweet from Mercedes' official Twitter account:

Rosberg improved on his slower times to pass Verstappen in the standings, but he kept losing time in the final sector and wasn't able to match his team-mate.

The final 15 minutes of the session passed without major incidents, with most of the drivers opting for longer stints.

The gap between Mercedes and their top rivals Ferrari and Red Bull wasn't as big as those latter teams may have feared, and on the ultrasoft compounds, the two teams may be able to close the gap entirely during the second session. Ferrari finished the session on the supersofts but with the cars weighed down by fuel.