Hello and welcome to ESPNF1's coverage of FP1 from Montreal. After the Bahrain debacle over the last few weeks, it's good to finally get back to some on-track action.

Canada may have felt its thunder was being stolen somewhat by the ongoing debate about the Bahrain Grand Prix, but this weekend is sure to see another exciting grand prix. It was this race last year that was the catalyst for the current tyre specifications we have this season, so in dry conditions the tyre situation is going to be the key factor. But dry conditions are not expected, with rain forecast for both Saturday and Sunday...

The long straights and slow corners of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve mean this is a circuit that plays to the strengths of McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault, while Red Bull struggled to fourth and fifth here last year. Who's your tip for victory this weekend? Get in touch with your predictions (and comments on Bahrain or anything else) via the link above or on Twitter @ESPNF1_live

A few points to quickly clear up before action gets underway in nine minutes: Sergio Perez has been cleared to race by the FIA medical delegate following his heavy crash in Monaco qualifying, and Vitaly Petrov is also fully fit.

After an improved showing in Monaco where he pushed Sebastian Vettel all the way, Fernando Alonso and Ferrari will be hoping for another strong race this weekend. Alonso played down his chances if it remains dry yesterday, but he didn't seem too worried about it all:

© Sutton Images

While we're expecting rain later in the weekend, the weather at the moment is clear and sunny. It's a pleasant 17C air temp, and there's a healthy crowd in already. We're set for a dry first session.

The driver changes for you this morning: Nico Hulkenberg is in the Force India in place of Adrian Sutil, and Daniel Ricciardo is in for Sebastian Buemi at Toro Rosso.

The session is underway, and Heikki Kovalainen takes to the circuit for Lotus, closely followed by Jerome D'Ambrosio, Ricciardo and Tonio Liuzzi.

This track is a part-street circuit, and is only used for racing twice a year, so grip levels this morning will be very low. The smooth nature of the surface means rubber is hard to lay down too.

Nico Hulkenberg heads out with some aero paint on the Force India rear wing. All of the teams will be running a low-downforce aerodynamic specification on their cars to match the circuit characteristics of long fast straights and slow corners.

Everyone doing early installation laps, with Nick Heidfeld going round for a second tour.

The tyres available this weekend are the soft and supersoft compounds, the same as in Monaco.

Heidfeld is back in the pits. Kobayashi, Alonso and Button also carrying out two consecutive installation laps.

The BBC report that Felipe Massa had a bit of a brake issue which Ferrari has been working on. He's just headed out on track alon with Sebastian Vettel. Only Petrov and Alguersuari have yet to leave the pits.

Petrov is now on track. as Rosberg completes his third lap and starts another. He's cruising round though and not setting any kind of competitive time.

Petrov has the track to himself now, Alguersuari still yet to complete an installation lap.

All goes quiet out on track. Fortunately Hamilton breaks the silence.

Teams will be analysing new parts today, making sure that any data gained in the wind tunnel matches to performance out on track.

Hamilton returns to the pits and the track is empty once again.

Williams (WilliamsF1Team) on Twitter: "P1 underway. RB testing new front & rear wings & pirelli's new medium compound tyre for Valencia, PM running old wings for comparison"

On cue, Barrichello heads out on track, followed by Nico Rosberg. As Williams highlight, each driver has two sets of medium compound tyres to test today, as Pirelli look to tweak the compound ahead of using it in Valencia in two weeks.

CosworthF1 on Twitter: "Montreal is very tough on brakes but the large stopping zones provide an ideal opportunity to keep KERS fully-charge"

Alguersuari is now on track alone as Barrichello and Rosberg return to the pits.

Finally a few more cars on track. Ricciardo, Perez, Alonso, Button, Karthikeyan and Schumacher are now lapping.

Geoff Willis tells the BBC that HRT are looking to establish a smaller technical base in the UK, and will be running a wind tunnel programme starting next month.

Ricciardo sets the first lap time of the day, a 1:26.560, while Perez does a 1:29.513.

Alonso jumps to the top of the timesheets with a 1:22.158.

Just seen a replay of Alonso finding the track very slippy, sliding towards the barriers on the exit of turn 10 but catching the car easily.

Alonso immediately improves to a 1:19.981, and Schumacher is second with a 1:22.298.

Schumacher improves to a 1:20.377. Everyone doing these times on medium tyres as they look to preserve the rubber to be used this weekend.

Karthikeyan and Liuzzi running in tandem, and Karthikeyan looking very lively at the wheel. HRT has a blown diffuser on its cars to run this weekend.

Schumacher sets the fastest two sector times but then backs off, Karthikeyan has improved to a 1:24.930, but all the times set this morning will continue to lower as the track evolves.

Lewis Hamilton now out on track, and not far off the pace on his first flying lap. That pace has just been lowered though as Schumacher goes fastest with a 1:18.821

Hamilton does a 1:20.357, third fastest so far.

Alguersuari goes third with a 1:19.877, and Hamilton improves to a 1:18.914 - second fastest.

Schumacher has already completed 10 laps, the Mercedes drivers are always busy on a Friday.

Cars lining up and doing practice starts as di Resta, Glock and Barrichello all leave the pit lane.

Hamilton does a 1:18.395 to do the fastest time of the day so far. Only 11 efforts posted so far though, and Sebastian Vettel is the only man to have completed just 1 lap.

A busy circuit now, with 14 cars on track.

Mercedes (OfficialMGP) on Twitter: "Grip is quite inconsistent on track right now - every lap will get better and better, with more and more rubber on track"

Luthando emails in to say: "I am one of the people who believe that overtaking is a delicate art, I am not a fan of DRS this season. Why have the FIA opted for 2 DRS zones on a track where action is almost always a given?"

The reasoning is that in Melbourne the DRS didn't quite do enough to allow overtaking on the pit straight, but it allowed the following driver to get closer to the car in front and then he could have made a move on the next straight if he had use of the DRS available. The hope is that it will help overtaking in to turn one here, but the FIA have admitted the whole system will be subject to trial and error this year.

The BBC were reporting that Lewis Hamilton had a slight problem with the steering wheel display, and it now appears to be a much more serious issue. Hamilton is out of the car, unzipping his overalls and the car is up on stands with the floor coming off.

Sebastian Vettel is still yet to do more than his single lap, apparently due to a brake issue but he should be out on track soon.

Heidfeld and di Resta both run wide at turn one as the cars struggle for grip.

Hamilton has been knocked off top spot during that time too, Massa is now quickest with a 1:17.707, 0.4s ahead of Rosberg, with Webber third on a 1:18.133 and Alonso fourth with a 1:18.326

Petrov is back in the garage after carrying out what appeared to be an aero test, but it sounded like the engine was bouncing off the limiter at low speed.

Vettel is now out on track and about to post his first time. Button has gone fourth quickest.

Vettel's first lap is 4.7s off the pace, he's on the soft tyres straight away.

Vettel improves to a 1:19.957, still 2.5s off the pace.

Lotus (MyTeamLotus) on Twitter: "Circuit is still dirty and low grip, Heikki says it's making the car nervous on the brakes and on corner entry at the moment"

Vettel still building up confidence and familiarity as he improves to a 1:18.852 - the exact same time as Barrichello in 10th.

Alguersuari runs off at turns eight and nine, losing the rear end under braking.

Sebastian Vettel smashes his car in to the wall of champions. Red flag.

Vettel took too much speed in to the final chicane and lost the rear end. He bounced over the second kerb and went straight on in to the wall. He managed to scrub a lot of speed off but the car is heavily damaged. "I hit the kerb, slid off the track and hit the wall. I'm fine," he says over the radio.

To add to the drama, a marshall jumps on to the track and heads towards Vettel's car but falls over with his fire extinguisher. Poor guy.

Vettel returns to the garage and chats with his race engineer and Helmut Marko.

The session restarts after Vettel's car is removed. Di Resta is first on track again.

So Vettel has lost at least 30 minutes of track time, and his mechanics will have a lot of work to do to fix the car in time for FP2 this afternoon.

Di Resta locks up heavily in to the turn 10 hairpin. Fortunately it's on a set of medium compound tyres which will be handed back at the end of the day.

Heidfeld has gone fourth quickest, he's running on the soft tyre.

The track is very busy again now as teams try to make up for the lost time - the clock doesn't stop under red flag conditions in practice.

Felipe Massa had a big moment at turn four, losing the rear end and then collecting it again withing inches of the wall. Then a host of cars are forced to cut the final chicane as they take too much speed in to it on the soft tyres.

A busy few minutes as Heidfeld spins at turn two and has to drive in to the middle of the grass inside the corner to get out of the way.

Hamilton is back out on track despite having no display on his steering wheel, so he's having to change gear by intuition with no LED readout. He's doing a good job of it until he outbrakes himself in to the final chicane and skips it.

Massa improves to a 1:16.926, and then Alonso goes even better with a 1:16.139 as Ferrari head the timesheets.

Jenson Button is third quickest now, and TV pictures show his dad in the McLaren hospitality area, along with girlfriend Jessica Michibata who gets a surprise to see she's on screen having been furiously typing on an iPad.

Both times set by the Ferrari pair were on soft tyres, while Button is still on the medium compound.

Correction, Button was on the soft tyre too as the yellow markings are visible as he is wheeled back in to the garage.

A radio problem is apparently keeping Petrov in the pits - he's only done 5 laps and is yet to set a time.

Renault (OfficialLRGP) on Twitter: "Throttle pedal still being changed on Vitaly's car, hopes to get in a few timed laps before end of session"

So it wasn't just a radio issue, clearly.

Rosberg improves to a 1:16.239, second fastest and just 0.1s off Alonso's time.

And Rosberg improves again on the next lap, a 1:16.002 putting him top of the timesheets.

Petrov is back out on track, along with 11 other cars.

10 minutes to go now, and Rosberg was flying again but backed off in the last sector.

Still in the pits are Massa, Button, Heidfeld, Hamilton, Vettel, Maldonado, Liuzzi, Kobayashi and Glock.

Rosberg goes much quicker again, this time a 1:15.591.

The pace is impressive today - in fact it's probably quicker than all the teams expected too. Mercedes preview sheet gave a lowest qualifying time of 1:15.000 as part of its 107% sample times, and it could end up being lower than that.

Rosberg complains over the radio that he was experiencing some burning in the cockpit, and he pits.

Schumacher has improved to third quickest, but he's the best part of a second slower than his team-mate Rosberg.

Rosberg does appear to be in some real discomfort as he gets out of the car. Mercedes have had cooling problems all season.

We haven't mentioned Mark Webber much today, but he's currently 11th quickest and having issues with traffic.

Button improves to fourth quickest, over a second slower than Rosberg but now ahead of Massa.

Hamilton improves to fifth quickest with a 1:16.842 despite having no display.

The chequered flag falls with many drivers still on a lap.

Massa improves to fourth quickest, a 1:16.658. Hamilton pits despite being quick in the first sector.

Jenson Button was with 0.5s of Rosberg's fastest time but he too pits.

So Rosberg finishes the session with the fastest time, a 1:15.591. Nobody else could join him in the 1:15s, as Alonso is second on a 1:16.139 and Schumacher third with 1:16.549. Next up are Massa, Button, Hamilton, Barrichello, Di Resta, Heidfeld and Hulkenberg - so Force India seem to have some pace around here.

The busiest man was Ricciardo as he completed 35 laps. And the least productive? Unsurprisingly that was Sebastian Vettel after his crash, which will be the big story of the morning, and Red Bull face a race against time to get his car ready for the next session in two and a half hours time. Can they do it? Join us for FP2 to find out.