Montreal – World champion Max Verstappen did not let the renewed discussions about the hopping cars according to the instructions from the word association stop him. The 24-year-old World Championship leader raced to first place in Friday’s first free practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix. “Rule changes during the season are not okay,” he had previously emphasized: “You have to find your limit as a team, how far you can go.”

The day before, the FIA had intervened out of concern for the safety of the pilots. She asked the teams to make the necessary adjustments so that the extreme bouncing at high speeds does not put the drivers under such physical strain. He is also not interested in whether the FIA’s instructions are good or bad for them, said the Red Bull star.

In the second round, also over an hour, Verstappen was again unbeatable. Charles Leclerc, who is 34 points behind Verstappen in the classification before the ninth race of the season, finished second in the second free practice session after a fifth place in the first round – his gap to Verstappen was only 81 thousandths of a second. Monegasque (116), who fell back to third overall behind Verstappen (150 points) and Perez (129), has to accept a starting place penalty at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday (8 p.m. / live TT.com ticker, ORF 1, Sky). take.

He will be penalized ten places down. As the race stewards announced on Saturday night, the Monegasque drove in the second free practice session on Friday with new control electronics, the so-called power unit. The third of these was used this year, one more than is allowed. Therefore, Leclerc has to accept the starting place penalty.

“We’re not in the best position to win,” Leclerc admitted. “It’s part of our discussion to choose the best course to take a penalty.” However, the track in Montréal is a good course for overtaking, which would speak in favor of the penalty in the coming race.

Sebastian Vettel, who won in 2013 in the Red Bull and in 2018 in a Ferrari on the course on the Île Notre-Dame, finished ninth in the Aston Martin behind record champion Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. Mick Schumacher finished 17th in the Haas.