Canada Qualifying Reaction
Image: Moneygram Haas F1 Team
After a rain-soaked and chaotic qualifying at Circuit Giles Villeneuve, the grid for today promises an exciting race. So with the race only hours away, let’s have a look at how the grid will line up.
Q1
The first qualifying session was extremely chaotic as increasingly heavy rainfall affected the track temperature as well as the driver’s confidence to push.
Before any laps could be set, Zhou Guyanyu’s Alfa Romeo lost drive, causing him to pull over into a nearby escape road, but eventually set off, tip-toeing back to the pits. The whole incident regarding Zhou brought out the red flags, with only a few cars setting times.
After the incident was cleared, the drivers set out to conquer the wet streets of Île Notre-Dame. Verstappen and Alonso adapted well to the adverse conditions and set fast lap times, leaving the rest of the grid far behind. Verstappen finished the session with a 1:20.851, an impressive six-tenths quicker than runner-up Fernando Alonso.
Many drivers found the sweet spot in the closing stages of Q1, which meant many drivers were slaloming around those who’d just set a hotlap.
The key talking point from Q1 was an incident that took place with seconds to go, involving Gasly, Sainz, and Tsunoda. Sainz slowed down to let Gasly and Tsunoda pass but failed to spot that there was no space to let both drivers through. This resulted in Sainz blocking Gasly, which forced the Frenchman to take evasive action and take to the runoff at the final chicane. This incident would result in Sainz being awarded a three-place grid penalty for impeding Gasly.
A final flurry of quick lap times decorated the timing sheets with drivers like Ocon, Piastri, and Russell setting impressive times. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Alpha Tauri as they lost both its drivers. Gasly eventually lost out and was unable to put in another lap time to get into Q2, understandably frustrated at the incident with Carlos Sainz.
The drivers knocked out of Q1 were:
16th - Yuki Tsunoda
17th - Pierre Gasly
18th - Nyck de Vries
19th - Logan Sargeant
20th - Zhou Guanyu
Q2
As track evolution played a huge part in cooling the track, the drivers spotted a dry line and a few drivers made the switch to slick tyres as soon as the session began.
Alex Albon was the first driver to try his luck on the softs, with Lando Norris following suit. Albon set the fastest lap on the soft-compound tyre, putting him more than a second clear of intermediate runner Max Verstappen. Although this lasted only a few minutes, Albon’s speed and commitment were praised by many.
Following this, a whole host of drivers pitted for the soft tyre, with Lance Stroll spinning and narrowly avoiding the barriers. This would be a reflection of his session, however, as the Canadian driver failed to string together a competitive lap time and was knocked out.
The biggest losers of this session were Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez who didn’t gel with the tyres and the track evolution, resulting in sub-par lap times and both drivers missing Q3. Perez was on the right tyres at the right time but could not complete a lap without making a mistake, making this the second weekend in a row where he hasn’t made the final qualifying session.
Ferrari’s woes continued as Charles Leclerc failed to make Q3 with the intermediate tyres, prompting experts to ask why Ferrari didn’t pit the Monegasque for slicks.
The drivers who were knocked out of Q2 were:
11th - Charles Leclerc
12th - Sergio Perez
13th - Lance Stroll
14th - Kevin Magnussen
15th - Valtteri Bottas
Q3
The final qualifying session saw some amazing performances but it was business as usual for Red Bull as Max Verstappen topped the leaderboard early doors, with Alonso a dismal 1.4 seconds behind.
Just three minutes into the session, Oscar Piastri lost control of his McLaren and spun around, causing potential damage to his driveshaft. This incident meant the session was red flagged and the session was halted yet again.
With the rain picking up yet again, it’s easy to see why Piastri made that mistake. All ten drivers opted for intermediates as it started to rain a lot heavier than before.
As soon as Piastri crashed, Nico Hulkenberg set an astonishing time, promoting him to second place, two-tenths ahead of Fernando Alonso.
The rain started to get much heavier after the incident involving Piastri was cleared. This was all for nothing however as the extreme weather meant that any lap time set was going to be considerably slower than those already set and no driver risked setting a time. It was all celebrations for Haas and Nico Hulkenberg too, who achieved his highest starting position since Brazil 2010, where he took his first and so far his only pole position.
These jubilations were to be short-lived as Hulkenberg was found to be speeding under the red flag, which saw the German receive a three-place grid drop. Further penalties were on the way as Tsunoda and Stroll both received three-place grid penalties for impeding other drivers in the session.
Verstappen claimed his 25th pole position, placing him only one behind Mika Häkkinen for the most pole positions.
Here’s what the Dutchman had to say on his performance in qualifying:
“We just made all the right calls, had the right at the track to do the lap times and very happy to be on pole here.”
Final qualifying results
1st - Max Verstappen (NED)
2nd - Nico Hulkenberg (GER) (+3, net 5th)
3rd - Fernando Alonso (ESP)
4th - Lewis Hamilton (GBR)
5th - George Russell (GBR)
6th - Esteban Ocon (FRA)
7th - Lando Norris (GBR)
8th - Carlos Sainz (ESP) (+3, net 11th)
9th - Oscar Piastri (AUS)
10th - Alexander Albon (THA)
11th - Charles Leclerc (MCO)
12th - Sergio Perez (MEX)
13th - Lance Stroll (CAN) (+3, net 16th)
14th - Kevin Magnussen (DNK)
15th - Valtteri Bottas (FIN)
16th - Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) (+3, net 19th)
17th - Pierre Gasly (FRA)
18th - Nyck de Vries (NED)
19th - Logan Sargeant (USA)
20th - Zhou Guanyu (CHN)
