It was pole for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix as the 2018 title contender stamped his authority ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was only fourth.
Session-by-session round-up:
Q1:
It was a disastrous start for the luckless Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean at the start of Q1 when the Frenchman’s Ferrari engine gave way as he came out of the pit, leaving a trail of smoke and smell in the pitlane.
Grosjean’s session was over before it could begin, while Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson joined him soon after the Swede touched the wall damaging his front right suspension. He set a time of 1m14.593s to be classified 19th and last with Grosjean not setting a time.
Joining the two in the bottom was Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m13.047s) in 16th followed by the Williams’ pair of Lance Stroll (1m13.590s) and Sergey Sirotkin (1m13.643s). The Frenchman missed on Q2 by a mere 0.049s to McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne.
Gasly was missing some performance after Honda was forced to change the upgraded engine due to loss of power at the end of FP3. Meanwhile, Vettel set the pace upfront by just 0.015s from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Hamilton rounding out the Top 3.
Q2:
The strategic tyre gamble for the race saw both the Mercedes and Ferrari set their best time on the ultrasoft tyres while the Red Bull duo went for the hypersoft tyres – which meant the Red Bull drivers will have to make an early stop whereas Mercedes and Ferrari can go longer.
Verstappen set the pace early on with a 1m11.472s but his teammate Daniel Ricciardo beat him onl the very last lap to go 0.038s ahead by setting a 1m11.434s. Bottas was third with the top four only separated by a 0.090s on the line.
Meanwhile, the battle for Top 10 was set after the first runs done by the drivers – no one improved on their second run, enough to dismantle the early Top 10. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m12.606s) led the pack in 11th with Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley (1m12.635s) in 12th.
One of the drivers to improve on his grid position was Sauber’s Charles Leclerc (1m12.661s) as he managed to beat both the McLarens who couldn’t improve enough on their second run with Fernando Alonso (1m12.856s) in 14th ahead of teammate Stoffel Vandoorne (1m12.865s).
Q3:
The all-important session had the provisional pole to Vettel with a time of 1m10.776s after the German beat Bottas who did a 1m10.857s while Raikkonen was third with a 1m11.095s. Verstappen was only fourth with Hamilton and Ricciardo behind.
The second run was all for Vettel as he further improved on his time and clinch pole by a record-breaking 1m10.764s with Bottas staying second despite not able to improve. Verstappen pushed himself to third with a 1m10.937s laptime.
The Dutchman pipped Hamilton to fourth who did a 1m10.996s after a lock-up which cost him few tenths to finish in the Top 3 or fight for pole. Also making a mistake was Raikkonen in fifth with a time of 1m11.095s.
It was disappointment for Monaco GP winner Ricciardo who could only manage sixth after his time of 1m11.116s. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg took the best of the rest spot in seventh ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon.
The German did a 1m11.973s to the French driver’s 1m12.084s, while the second Renault of Carlos Sainz (1m12.168s) was ninth ahead of the second Force India of Sergio Perez (1m12.671s) to complete the Top 10.