Lewis Hamilton topped the times in Canada for first free practice on Friday morning, just edging Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel in second by a tenth.
Nico Rosberg came in third for Mercedes ahead of current championship leader Fernando Alonso.
The session saw an array of testing sensors as the teams looked to validate their new performance updates and gain valuable data from the session, with many drivers completing 30 to 40 laps as the threat of rain during FP2 looms.
Drivers, clearly pushing to see their cars new potential around the part-street circuit, made several errors, but the most costly saw Heikki Kovalainen heavily damage his car as he made contact with the wall at turns 8/9.
Meanwhile Vettel was called to the stewards office after the session for cutting a chicane to pass Bruno Senna in order to gain a clear track for his next lap – the outcome of the rule infringement is yet to be heard.
The session also saw intermittent rain showers which disrupted running on a few occasions.
2012 Canadian GP FP1 Results:
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:15.564 | 30 | |
| 02. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:15.682 | +0.118 | 29 |
| 03. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:15.782 | +0.218 | 30 |
| 04. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:15.842 | +0.278 | 34 |
| 05. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:15.897 | +0.333 | 28 |
| 06. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:15.986 | +0.422 | 29 |
| 07. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:16.000 | +0.436 | 31 |
| 08. | S. Perez | Sauber | 1:16.249 | +0.685 | 32 |
| 09. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:16.264 | +0.700 | 28 |
| 10. | J. Button | McLaren | 1:16.347 | +0.783 | 12 |
| 11. | P. di Resta | Force India | 1:16.460 | +0.896 | 32 |
| 12. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:16.619 | +1.055 | 17 |
| 13. | P. Maldonado | Williams | 1:16.859 | +1.295 | 25 |
| 14. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 1:16.890 | +1.326 | 36 |
| 15. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:17.014 | +1.450 | 41 |
| 16. | J. Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1:17.352 | +1.788 | 28 |
| 17. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1:17.580 | +2.016 | 31 |
| 18. | V. Petrov | Caterham | 1:17.935 | +2.371 | 23 |
| 19. | H. Kovalainen | Caterham | 1:18.177 | +2.613 | 16 |
| 20. | P. de la Rosa | HRT | 1:18.182 | +2.618 | 26 |
| 21. | B. Senna | Williams | 1:18.762 | +3.198 | 36 |
| 22. | N. Karthikeyan | HRT | 1:19.354 | +3.790 | 23 |
| 23. | T. Glock | Marussia | 1:20.004 | +4.440 | 21 |
| 24. | C. Pic | Marussia | 1:20.067 | +4.503 | 23 |
