Max Verstappen led the pack out of the pits at the start of the one-hour session and he set the first place benchmark at 1m20.154s in his RB19 which was fitted with an aerodynamic load-measuring device.
He was quickly shuffled back in the standings as the rest of the drivers that had headed out when the track went live posted their opening times, with Bottas's 1m18.728s the best of the very limited bunch.
The running was then stopped after Alpine's Pierre Gasly came to a halt on the long run between Turns 7 and 8 due to a driveshaft issue.
Once his car was pushed behind the barriers as FP1's first five minutes closed out, the session did not get going again as expected.
Mercedes was so certain green flag conditions would soon return it sent Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to the end of the pitlane, but when they were held there for several minutes the Black Arrows mechanics had to rush down and wheel the cars back to their garages.
Mercedes said in a statement "both cars headed to end of pitlane but then a problem in race control meant the circuit was not reopened while it is resolved".
It added: "This issue was only communicated when cars reached end of pit lane. So we have brought the cars back as they would have lost any useful tyre temperature."
At this point, nearly 20 minutes into FP1, the FIA formally communicated in its own statement that the session could not restart because CCTV cameras around the Montreal track were not working as expected and so the pitlane could not be reopened and the session resumed.
The FIA statement read: "The session restart has been delayed due to issues with the local CCTV infrastructure around the circuit.
"The local organisers are working to resolve the issue and until that time we can't restart for safety reasons."
Source: Autosport