Max Verstappen produced a scintillating lap in the rain to claim pole in Montreal for the first Canadian grand prix since 2019. Verstappen cleared his closest rival Fernando Alonso by .645 of a second in a crucial point in the championship fight, with Carlos Sainz taking P3. With championship rivals Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez starting from the rear, Verstappen has the chance to mightily extend his championship lead over the two.
It was a huge disappointment for Sergio Perez as he slid off at turn 3 to crash out of Q2 after he couldn’t get the car back into reverse with the car stuck to the barrier. Perez will start P13 on Sunday with a mega job to do to get his RB18 back to the front of the pack.
On the other end the biggest surprise came from the 2 Haas drivers of Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher, both showing immense pace in the wet. Schumacher showing shades of his father Michael in mastering tough conditions to put his VF-22 in P6 with Magnussen not far ahead in P5. Both Haas cars should be on for huge points tomorrow.
Alonso continued his Alpine renaissance by qualifying in P2 after a stonking lap, showing the pace he had in practice was no fluke, as he had is Alpine dialed in to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and the tricky conditions around the circuit. Esteban Ocon continues to lose out against Alonso, but was able to slot his #14 Alpine in P7.
Sebastian Vettel after his strong run through practice was only able to slot his Aston Martin in P17 , while teammate and Montreal native Lance Stroll put his machinery right behind him in P18. The pace the Aston Martins showed in practice seemed to disappear in qualifying, with Vettel saying over the radio there was “no grip.”
The Mercedes duo of Mr. Consistency George Russell will start from P8, hoping to continue his streak of consecutive finishes in the top 5 while 7 time champion Lewis Hamilton will start from P4 , beating Russell with a season best effort to bring their qualifying battle to near even at 5-4 after Russell gambled on slicks and spun in turn 2 with no grip on the wettest part of the track.
The Alpha Tauri’s of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda qualified P16 and P20, with Tsunoda starting at the back of the grid anyway due to a power unit change, while Gasly, freshly assured by team boss Franz Tost of staying with the Faenza side through 2023 will look to score points tomorrow off a poor qualifying run this afternoon.
In the Mclaren’s up and down season Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris have very different sessions. Ricciardo put himself into P with a Ricciardo-esque run thats been missing this year. Unfortunately for Norris P/U issues derailed his efforts in Q2, putting him P14 for tomorrow. With the news Gasly is staying at Alphatauri through 2023, can Ricciardo recover his season and start delivering solid results for the Woking outfit before other options could potentially be discussed?
Alfa Romeo’s Valterri Bottas continues his run of getting out of Q1 to 145 races with a promising run to P11 but failing to get out of Q2 , while teammate Zhou Guanyu had a masterful run into Q3 for the first time in his career and will start P10.
At the back of the grid joining the Aston Martins and Alphatauri’s will be Nicholas Latifi in 19th, failing to get out of Q1 at every race this season, and outqualified again by Alex Albon who brought his Williams home in P12, just missing out on Q3. All those behind Leclerc however will gain a position on the grid because of the Ferrari man’s power unit change.
Can Charles Leclerc produce a Lewis Hamilton 2021 Brazilian grand prix type drive to close the gap to the 2 Red Bulls at the top of the standings on Sunday? We’ll find out in what is sure to be a wild return to Canada.