Alonso leads opening practice in Montreal as Mercedes sandbags

Fernando Alonso topped the opening practice session for the Canadian Grand prix in Montreal with a time of 1m17.238s. That was slightly better than Lewis Hamilton at 1m17.254s and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg at 1m17.384s.

However, the Mercedes drivers were reminded on the radio to lift and coast so they obviously are sandbagging.

Vettel was 4th in the Red Bull lemon, at least until it breaks down, and Bottas rounded out the top-5.

American Alexander Rossi was dead last in the backmarker Caterham, but he helped to clean the track early in the session and that is what his job was. Dead last. Looks bad. His F1 career is toast. What good team is going to hire a dead last driver? Why is he driving for the slowest team in F1? There will never be another American in F1 at this rate.

He gets to clean the track on Friday in Austin later this year to further hone his skills in case he decides for a career as a Street Sweeper driver.

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