Canadian Grand Prix: Practice Recap
June 13, 2025
Round 10 of the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Friday practice at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal as teams prepared for Sunday’s 70-lap Canadian Grand Prix – this race weekend of particular note for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team as it celebrates its 200th race start.
Drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon commenced preparations running exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires in FP1 – each utilizing two sets working across a baseline set-up, followed by qualifying sim runs and high-fuel stints. Bearman bagged the faster lap time clocking a 1:14.520 to sit P17 on the timesheet with Ocon directly behind his teammate in P18 on a 1:14.605 best lap.
FP2 held late-afternoon saw lap times drop with both Bearman and Ocon introducing the Yellow medium tire compound into their second practice run plans. After their opening stint on mediums, a return to fresh soft rubber delivered the fastest laps of the day – Bearman posting a 1:13.080 for P16, with Ocon banking a 1:13.175 for P17. Both drivers wrapped up Friday’s track running with long runs through to the checkered flag.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 122 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 66 by Bearman with 56 from Ocon.
Ollie Bearman:
“It’s been a tough day, but this afternoon was definitely better than this morning. We made some changes for the afternoon and that’s moved us in the right direction and closed the gap in the midfield, but we still have a bit of work to do tonight before tomorrow. The curb riding has been difficult, but we were expecting that going into this weekend as it’s a bit of a trait on our car. We’re a bit down on performance, so let’s see what we can do overnight – we often perform better on Saturday than we do on Friday.”
Esteban Ocon:
“It was interesting to get some laps in proper conditions as last year the track was wet all weekend, and we only had one session in the dry. Today is all about understanding to get a good qualifying tomorrow. We have a clear direction, it’s very close out there and execution will need to be perfect in qualifying, but this is what we’re working on, and if we do this we should be in the mix.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:
“I think overall, it was a clean Friday. We completed run programs as planned, driver feedback was good, and we gathered lots of data to improve the car from FP1 to FP2. There’s more to find – in both low and high-fuel, but the main thing is that we had a clean Friday, so we got everything we needed to improve the car for tomorrow and Sunday.”