Nico Hulkenberg trigged the first red flag stoppage of Second Practice for the Canadian Grand Prix to add to the delays to Friday's running. FP2 was extended to 90 minutes to accommodate further running after less than five minutes of green flag time was possible in the first session before Pierre Gasly ground to a halt for Alpine and CCTV cameras failed, ensuring no further action would take place. But 30 minutes into FP2, Hulkenberg's Haas was engulfed in smoke after losing drive out of the final corner, leaving the German stranded on the start-finish straight. "I lost the engine, I lost drive," he said on team radio. The apparent power unit failure will raise further questions over Ferrari reliability and leaves Hulkenberg lacking mileage at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ahead of the weekend. He may be saved by wet weather in qualifying, however, whilst the threat of rain is also increasing for race day, which would render any dry running in FP2 meaningless.
🚩 RED FLAG 🚩 The session has been red-flagged Hulkenberg is out of the car as the marshals extinguish the flames and smoke #CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/w5Y5fu0MZW — Formula 1 (@F1) June 16, 2023
Alpine woe continues
Shortly after green flag action resumed, Alpine suffered its second car issue of the day with Esteban Ocon stopping at Turns 8 and 9. The French manufacturer's start to the weekend mirrors the woes of Azerbaijan, after which CEO Laurent Rossi labelled its efforts as 'amateurish'. Gasly returned to the garage with the team checking over his car to ensure no further issues hit the A523.
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