Massa quickest in Canadian practice

Formual One : Ferrari's Felipe Massa has recorded the fastest time during first free practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Formual One: Ferrari's Felipe Massa has recorded the fastest time during first free practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian clocked a best lap of one minute 17.553 around the 4.361km Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a quarter of a second faster than BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica (1.17.809), while third fastest was McLaren Mercedes' Heikki Kovalainen (1:18.133.)

BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld preceded world champion Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, while current world drivers' championship leader Lewis Hamilton was sixth-fastest in his McLaren Mercedes, clocking 1:18.303.

Overnight rain had made track wet on a cool and overcast morning in Montreal as the 90-minute session got under way.

READ MORE

Massa, disqualified here last year along with Giancarlo Fisichella for ignoring a pit-lane red light, left it until his final lap to post his best time and Kubica, second in Monaco behind Hamilton two weeks ago, did likewise.

Raikkonen was almost three-quarters of a second slower than his Ferrari team-mate despite posting the fastest sector one time of the session while Hamilton put in the fewest laps of all the drivers, eight, on his return to the circuit at which he claimed his maiden Grand Prix victory in 2007.

Mark Webber was the fastest of the mid-division team drivers, the Red Bull driver clocking 1:18.712 ahead of team-mate David Coulthard, with Kazuki Nakajima of Williams ninth quickest in 1:18.809 and Renault's Fernando Alonso 10th.

Honda's Jenson Button was the slowest of the 20 drivers, with a best lap of 1:21.542.