Lewis Hamilton dominates first Canadian GP practice

Lewis Hamilton set the pace as Mercedes dominated the first practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton, in impressive form throughout, was 0.415 seconds quicker than team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Lotus's Romain Grosjean and Force India's Nico Hulkenberg made it a Mercedes-engined top four, ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

The four-time world champion, third overall this year behind Hamilton and Rosberg, was 1.6secs off the pace.

Hamilton enters the race determined to extend his lead in the championship after being robbed of victory in Monaco two weeks ago by a team strategy error.

The world champion has refused to talk about the incident in Montreal this weekend, saying he is determined to focus on the future rather than the past.

Just as in Monaco, where he dominated the entire weekend until the late-race problem, Hamilton was straight onto 'attack' mode as soon as he took to the slippery and treacherous Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Ile Notre Dame in the middle of the St Lawrence Seaway.

Hamilton's first flying lap was 2.724secs faster than Rosberg's. On their next runs, Hamilton was 1.655secs clear.

At one stage, Rosberg got to within 0.019secs of Hamilton, only for the Englishman to stretch his advantage again with his next run.

But it was not a completely seamless session for Hamilton, who had a spin at the hairpin before the long straight after locking up a front wheel on entry and running a little wide of the ideal line.

Hamilton also complained of slower than normal upshifts as he and Mercedes went about dialling the car into one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar.

Rosberg resists the urge to wave at his team-mate who was pointing the wrong direction on the circuit

Ferrari have an engine upgrade worth about 15bhp in outright power but so far it has not made much difference.

Mercedes also have an upgrade, although theirs is only for reliability, and nearly all the cars supplied by the German manufacturer have new engines for this race.

Grosjean was consistently fast all session, and ended it 1.509secs off Hamilton, and 0.15secs quicker than Hulkenberg.

Behind Vettel, Williams's Felipe Massa was sixth, confirming the team's belief they will be more competitive in Canada after a poor performance in Monaco.

The Renault-engine Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat was seventh, ahead of the second Lotus of Pastor Maldonado and the McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso and Williams's Valtteri Bottas.

Alonso's team-mate Jenson Button was 14th, 0.6secs behind the Spaniard. The Englishman suffered gearbox problems in the first half-hour but did get up and running later.

Honda, like Ferrari, have used the first of their permitted engine development tokens - three for Ferrari with their combustion upgrade; two for Honda, who say theirs is only for reliability.

The third British driver, Manor's Will Stevens, was slowest, 0.008secs behind team-mate Roberto Merhi.

The second session starts at 2pm local time (19:00 BST) and forecasts suggest it could be hit by rain showers.

Full practice results