The F1 isn’t having an exciting title race this year because there is a clear dominance from the reigning two-time champion. Max Verstappen is so far ahead of the grid in the World Drivers’ Championship that his 53-point lead looks impossible to reduce.
Checo Perez appeared as the biggest threat early in the season, but his teammate at Red Bull had poor performances in the last two races that made the gap significant. Despite the chances of Verstappen losing his third consecutive title seem very low, there are still a lot of races to go.
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F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 2023 canceled: Why was the race in Imola suspended?
The Canadian GP always presents an interesting challenge for the drivers, so every practice counts., The first one usually provides some surprises because teams are just starting to set up their cars, although every minute is valuable in F1. That’s why today’s events could be huge.
What happened in FP1 of the 2023 F1 Canadian GP?
The session started with an incident right away. It was Pierre Gasly who caused a red flag because he had issues with his Alpine. That happened after only four minutes. Considering there wasn’t a crash, a quick restart was expected. However, that was the end of Free Practice 1 for an unbelievable reason.
FIA explained the decision to not resume the FP1 for a technology-related issue on the track. “The session restart has been delayed due to issues with the local CCTV. The local organizers are working to resolve the issue and until that time we can’t restart for safety reasons”, was the initial message shared by race control. Minutes later they offered a new update.
“The delay will be longer as the CCTV is not synced correctly and until the issue has been fixed, we cannot run on track. This system is a local installation and they are continuing to work to resolve the problem”, they announced. The decision of suspending the FP1 had everything to do with the safety of the drivers because those cameras are vital to check every corner on the track.
What happened in FP2 of the 2023 F1 Canadian GP?
This suspension was a huge blow for the teams. Constructors like Aston Martin and Williams arrived in Canada with multiple upgrades, so those minutes on track are very valuable. In the end, they weren’t able to solve the issue. The decision they came up with was moving the beginning of FP2 half an hour.
Each free practice lasts one hour, but that changed with this exception. FIA decided to make that adjustment to allow Free Practice 2 to run for 90 minutes instead. The results showed Lewis Hamilton at the top registering 1:13.718. The other Mercedes finished second, with George Russell ending 0.027s behind. Carlos Sainz completed the podium, while Verstappen was sixth.
