Max Verstappen on top in Canada as Lewis Hamilton blasts 'undriveable' Mercedes

The 24-year-old Dutchman, who will start his 150th Formula One race on Sunday, clocked a best lap time of one minute and 14.127 seconds in the second session, having been quickest in the opening period earlier, to beat Ferrari's Charles Leclerc by 0.081 seconds. Carlos Sainz was third-quickest in the second Ferrari ahead of resurgent four-time champion Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Alpine.

Pierre Gasly improved to take sixth place for AlphaTauri ahead of Mercedes' George Russell, Lando Norris and his McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Esteban Ocon was 10th in the second Alpine ahead of a strangely off-colour Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull, local hope Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes.

Hamilton appeared to be unhappy with the experimental set-up of his car and complained it was "undriveable" on a weekend when the team's chief technical officer James Allison was at the track to help Mercedes recover from a disappointing start to the season. Blighted by performance problems, notably with "porpoising" and bouncing, the team had chosen to try some radical set-up ideas in a bid to solve their problems.

The session began in dry conditions with an air temperature of 27 degrees as the cars poured out of the pit lane, all bar the two Mercedes drivers quickly joining the fray. Hamilton and Russell were seen in discussions with their team at the back of the pits while the floor of Hamilton's car was being changed.