Leclerc fastest for Ferrari as Hamilton hits wall in Canada FP2

Charles Leclerc led Ferrari to a one-two finish in second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday as championship leader Lewis Hamilton damaged his Mercedes after hitting the wall on a hot lap.

After seeing Hamilton and Mercedes run almost a second clear of the field in FP1, Ferrari managed to bounce back by leading the way in second practice, with Leclerc setting the fastest time of the session at 1m12.177s.

Both Leclerc and teammate Sebastian Vettel managed to improve on their second push laps on the Soft compound tyre, with just seven-hundredths of a second separating the pair at the end of the session.

Valtteri Bottas took third place for Mercedes, leading its charge alone after a mistake from Hamilton left his car with damage that brought his session to an early end.

Hamilton got out of shape coming through the Turn 8/9 chicane, causing the right-rear tyre to clip the wall on exit, leaving him with a puncture.

Mercedes investigated the issue and changed the rear of Hamilton's car as a precaution, but were unable to make the fixes in time to get him back out on-track before the end of the session. The Briton finished FP2 in sixth place, seven-tenths of a second off the pace.

Hamilton wasn't the only driver to suffer a prang, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen clipping the Wall of Champions after getting too close to teammate Pierre Gasly while exiting the final corner. Gasly and Verstappen ended FP2 in P12 and P13 respectively.

The issues for the regular front-runners allowed Carlos Sainz Jr. to take an unexpected fourth-place finish for McLaren ahead of Haas' Kevin Magnussen, with Racing Point driver Sergio Perez following Hamilton in seventh place.

Renault duo Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg ended the session eighth and ninth respectively, while Lance Stroll completed the top 10 for Racing Point. Stroll is under investigation for forcing Romain Grosjean off-track at the final corner in the closing stages of the session.