Lewis Hamilton aquaplaned into the wall during second practice ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix – but he still ended the session at the top of the timesheet.

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The 30-year-old Briton had topped the times in morning’s opening free practice session ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, the pair more than 1.5 seconds clear of the field.

In his accident, Hamilton lost control and was unable to stop his car sliding into the wall at the tight and tricky track that has a record for accidents and incidents. That brought out the red flag and once the stricken car was removed the rain had set in and no further action ensued.

Having run over four tenths of a second quicker than Rosberg in the first session, in which Hamilton had spun at the same corner, the reigning world champion again proved unbeatable with a time of one minute 15.988 seconds – 0.316 clear of second-placed Sebastian Vettel ( Ferrari ).

“We wanted to do some clutch calibration work and this is how it ended,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. “The front wing is gone.

“He was pretty quick. He’s fastest on the time-sheets, but I wouldn’t read too much into it. It’s just one of those days when it is difficult to get a lap together.”

Vettel’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was third ahead of Rosberg. The Lotus pair of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean were fifth and seventh before the rain set in – with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in sixth and eighth respectively.

Daniil Kvyat was ahead of teammate and winner here 12 months ago Daniel Ricciardo, the Red Bull duo rounding out the top 10.

McLaren struggled to make an impact despite Fernando Alonso getting up to eighth in FP1. The Spaniard could only manage 15th later on with team-mate Jenson Button down in 18th.

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson was 12th with the sister car of Felipe Nasr 17th – whilst the Toro Rosso’s of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen were 13th and 16th. The rainfall got heavier – sparking memories of the 2011 race here. 

Button won that day, clinching a victory he described as the “greatest” of his career, after the longest grand prix in history – over four hours due to rain delays – but there is little chance of a repeat this weekend with the weather set fair for today and tomorrow.