There hasn't even been any racing so far this week and it has already been a tough few days for Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley.

The likeable 28-year-old New Zealander has only picked up one point this season - a 10th-placed finish in Azerbaijan - and his team have run out of patience.

Toro Rosso made an approach to take McLaren's reserve driver Lando Norris to race in Hartley's place for the rest of the year, but McLaren said 'no'.

Englishman Norris, 18, is currently leading the FIA Formula Two Championship, is one of the brightest rising stars in motorsport and could potentially be promoted to a McLaren race seat in 2019.

Image source, Getty Images

If Max Verstappen does not finish this race there may be a few nervous journalists when they get to speak to him afterwards on Sunday.

He has been involved in at least one crash incident every race this year - and is fed up of being reminded that.

"I get tired of the questions. If I get a few more, I might headbutt someone, he said in a remarkable news conference yesterday.

Here is Max's sad season so far...

• In the first race in Australia, he over-drove behind Kevin Magnussen's Haas, ran wide, damaged his car and then spun, dropping down to finish sixth.
• In Bahrain, he crashed in qualifying and then retired in a collision with Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes judged to be a racing incident.
• In China, he lost a potential win when he ran wide trying an ambitious move around the outside of Hamilton and then collided with Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari.
• In Baku, he crashed in practice and in the race he and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo retired after a collision while the Australian was trying to overtake Verstappen, who made an illegal second change of direction in defence.
• In Spain, he damaged his front wing on a back marker at a re-start after a virtual safety car but continued to finished third.
• In Monaco, he crashed in final practice and the car was too badly damaged to be repaired for qualifying. He started from the back and finished ninth while Ricciardo won.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Montreal, Canada

The sun is shining in Montreal and one of the best weekends of the Formula 1 season is about to start. Everyone loves this race.

For the fabulous city, a fascinating, eclectic, rich combination of Europe and North America whose ambience seems to carry its history. And for the fabulous race track, one of the most challenging on the calendar, where the walls are close, the layout challenging and the mighty St Lawrence Seaways forms a forbidding backdrop carrying the water from the Great Lakes all the way to the North Atlantic.

Lewis Hamilton loves this place and practically owns it, having won for the last three years and six times in total in the 10 races through his career. He is playing down his hopes here on the basis of Mercedes having to postpone the introduction of their upgraded engine, owing to “quality issues”, while everyone else, including Ferrari have theirs. But was he being a bit Nigel Mansell about it all? Over seven races, an engine loses only single digits of horsepower. Make no mistake, Hamilton, all things considered, probably still goes into the weekend as favourite.

1. Australia, 25 March - 1st Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), 2nd Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 3rd Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari).

2. Bahrain, 8 April - 1st Vettel, 2nd Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), 3rd Hamilton

3. China, 15 April - 1st Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), 2nd Bottas, 3rd Raikkonen

4. Azerbaijan, 29 April - 1st Hamilton, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Sergio Perez (Force India)

5. Spain, 13 May - 1st Hamilton, 2nd Bottas, 3rd Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

6. Monaco, 27 May - 1st Ricciardo, 2nd Vettel, 3rd Hamilton

Image source, .

Welcome along. Thanks for joining us for BBC Sport's live text commentary from the opening day of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.

I'm Michael Emons and will be taking you through the action from the opening two practice sessions.

We will also have BBC Radio 5 live commentary to keep you entertained as well.

After the first four thrilling, dramatic races, this season was looking like being one of the best for many, many years.

But then Lewis Hamilton stormed clear and won easily in Spain and the difficulty of overtaking in Monaco was highlighted when Daniel Ricciardo managed to nurse his limping car home over the finish line to take the win, although he did provide a hilarious celebration afterwards.

Image source, Getty Images

But you don't have to wait too long for another race in Formula 1 and the Canadian Grand Prix is normally one of the best races of the season so it is time for a good one. Let's go.