Canada FP2 telemetry: Ferrari SF25 solid but falls short of front-running pace. Ferrari shows decent balance in FP2 at the Canadian GP, but performance falls short of top rivals..

Technical insights, but no pecking order yet
The second free practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix revealed many technically interesting elements but certainly didn’t clear up doubts about the overall competitiveness levels of the teams. The session standings showed nearly all drivers within 1 second of each other, despite this only being a practice session, and featured some reshuffling of the usual order, with Max Verstappen ninth and Oscar Piastri sixth, for example.

Williams most balanced, Mercedes fastest
In terms of balance, the car that stood out most for cleanliness and effectiveness was, somewhat surprisingly, the Williams. The car from Vowles’ team, brought to fourth place by Alex Albon, was a pleasure to watch throughout the entire curve profile: stable under braking and entry with a solid front end and a rear that stays composed, perfect through direction changes with a strong front and a rear that follows smoothly, and decent on exits thanks to good traction. Albon clocked the best second sector time and was only 27 thousandths off Norris’s best in the first, only to lose all that advantage by the end of the lap with two poor driving moments at the hairpin (a bad exit that affected the entire straight) and the final chicane. If Williams sees a chance at a points-worthy weekend, Mercedes appears to be dreaming bigger.

This is not entirely surprising: it has often been pointed out that the W16’s strength is its traction, and on a track where longitudinal performance matters most, Mercedes is in its element. But that’s not all: the new rear suspension now seems capable of unlocking extra performance, evidently thanks to a better understood setup path back at the factory, both in decoupled movements over kerbs and in coupled movements under traction and braking. The result is high effectiveness, with George Russell only struggling in a couple of entries (especially in Sector 1), but then flying out of corners, “darting” forward on exits, with a big gain in the final sector thanks to the first acceleration out of the hairpin — even if there’s a recorded top speed difference of 7 km/h between Russell and Verstappen, who was fastest at 331 km/h at the braking point. Kimi Antonelli’s third place in the standings removes doubt about which was the best car over a single lap on Friday in Canada.

McLaren unbalanced, Ferrari good but not great, Red Bull stronger on race pace
Second place went to Lando Norris, who found barely acceptable balance in his McLaren only midway through the session, with the impression that Woking needs a lot of setup work. The papaya cars gave off a clear sense of imbalance between front and rear — and not in a good way: the car felt inconsistent depending on the corner, with moments of major understeer and others where the rear end was overly loose. It’s expected that Andrea Stella’s engineers will find a better balance with some extra work, but these are exactly the types of issues anticipated when wing flex was limited.

Lando Norris actually posted his best performance not on new tyres, but after a few laps, once the peak grip of the ultra-soft C6 tyre faded — likely because that compound amplified the car’s nervousness instead of masking it. Still, he was the only one able to match fellow Briton Russell over a single lap, losing out only at the exit of the final chicane, after having a strong early lap thanks to excellent corner entry into Turn 2. As for Red Bull, Max Verstappen didn’t look entirely comfortable over one lap in the afternoon. Still, once again, the RB21 showed cornering data not far off the best, although it was running with a very conservative engine mode. Ferrari, running only Hamilton’s car, gave good impressions from a driving perspective, though the final time wasn’t remarkable. The SF25 looked well balanced but still has some imbalances to correct — most obviously in the final chicane.

Hard compounds for qualifying and race?
Race simulation runs were long and interesting, with everyone on medium tyres and all running closely matched times. The Kick Sauber cars tested the hard compound with decent results, which suggests that the medium and hard compounds could be the best choices for the race. The issue remains qualifying, with the medium often yielding better results than the C6 compound — once again fast but difficult to make work. On race pace, George Russell was on top among those using mediums, along with Kimi Antonelli who matched him step by step, ahead of Norris, Piastri and Verstappen — all within a tenth and a half.

Graining seems to be the biggest performance-limiting factor, making strategic planning very complex: in cooler conditions and with sliding, the hard tyres suffer most from graining. But if temperatures match those of Friday — with over 40°C track temperatures — the soft compounds could also be at risk of graining and heavy performance drop-offs. In short, as usual, it’s hard to make predictions. Mercedes has started strong, McLaren and Verstappen seem ready to respond, while Ferrari needs to find more consistency to join the front-running battle — pending Charles Leclerc’s return to the car for FP3. The Canadian weekend promises to be extremely interesting in many respects, and all that’s left is to enjoy it to the fullest.