Chaos at Canadian GP as police wrongly inform followers follow is cancelled

The Canadian Grand Prix weekend got off to a chaotic start on Friday, after fans were told that practice had been canceled – only for it to go ahead as planned.

The start of proceedings were marred by heavy rain, thunder and hail storms in Montreal, leading to fans being told to shelter in place, and the grandstands being evacuated.

Despite no official postponement coming from the FIA, fans took to social media to claim that local police had told them to leave the site, and that all track activity had been canceled for the day.

Furthermore, others reported tannoy announcements at train stations around the city that FP1 and FP2 were off – despite that not being the case.

Shortly before FP1’s official start time of 1:30pm EST, Mail Sport spoke to the FIA in Montreal to confirm that all sessions would be continuing as normal, and an official announcement followed thereafter.

Heavy rain marred the start of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend in Montreal on Friday

No cars were out on track and fans were forced to shelter for the start of first practice

The day started with bright sunshine for the drivers’ arrivals to the paddock in Canada

That occurred too late for some, though, with ‘thousands’ already returning to the city at the request of the authorities . 

While the session started on time and the clock began to run, the pit lane remained closed, meaning that no cars initially came out on track – much to the frustration of the hardy fans who remained in position around the track. 

When cars did eventually make their way out – led by Lewis Hamilton – the session was soon red-flagged when Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu hit the wall. 

Then day started with bright sunshine in Montreal, before the heavens opened to wreak havoc with the circuit and its surroundings on Notre Dame Island.

F1 reporter Chris Medland shared a photo of broadcasters covering their equipment from rain

Stewards worked hard with leaf-blowers to try and clear the track of standing water

The hardiest of fans stayed in the grandstands, but there were no cars for them to watch

Organizers closed the bridges bringing fans to the circuit and evacuated the grandstands for safety reasons, but held off on making any decision on postponements, with the forecasts showing clear skies by the scheduled start time.

That turned out to be the case, with stewards working hard to dry the track for FP1, while fans were allowed back to their seats before the session began.

In the paddock, broadcasters felt the full force of the weather, with commentary boxes leaking and buckets being handed out to catch the flow of water.

ViaPlay, RDS, Sky Sports and F1 TV were among those affected, with equipment covered in a bid to avoid more serious damage.