The Saturday in F1 Canadian GP saw weather play a huge role in deciding the grid along with penalties but Max Verstappen stood strong.
The weather played a key role in F1 Canadian GP qualifying but Red Bull’s Verstappen stood tall with a pole where his teammate Sergio Perez couldn’t get past Q2 due to changing conditions. He was not alone as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was knocked out too.
The Monegasque had asked to change to slicks early on but with the situation to set a lap time, it proved costly while the Mexican couldn’t get the temperature going in his stint on the slick tyres. Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz had his own troubles too.
The Spaniard was only eighth but with the impeding situation, he will drop out of the Top 10. Their loss was a gain for Mercedes pair who found themselves to be in a good spot in a tight battle, starting third and fourth due to Nico Hulkenberg’s penalty.
Lewis Hamilton was chuffed with third while George Russell joined him in fourth to make it an all-Mercedes Row 2. They are behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who benefits from Hulkenberg’s penalty too. Teammate Lance Stroll had a bad run to be out in Q2.
On top of that, he has a penalty too which somewhat smokes the dream of a double Aston Martin podium unless the F1 Canadian GP turns out to be a crazy one. The Canadian had a tough run but teammate Alonso had a smooth outing mostly.
Verstappen: “I think Q1 was quite straightforward with Inters. The track was quite dry in some places. So there are not many things that you could catch you out, because the tyres were getting up to temperature quite quickly. So that was good. But after that, of course, then you had to make the call in Q2, with when to switch to the slick tyres. I opted to initially go out on the Inter, just to get a lap in, because they work a bit better, of course, than cold slick tyres on a bit of a damp track. But then it was quite clear that I needed to go to the slicks. So we did a pit stop and those slick tyres, the first lap, the first two laps – so, out lap and first timed – it’s quite tricky knowing the grip levels and knowing how hard to push, so you’re a little bit under it.
“Luckily, then we got a decent lap in at the end, which was enough to go through to Q3. And then after that, it started to slowly increase, the rain. And at one point it was not possible anymore to drive with the slicks. But overall, I think we just had good communication with the team, you know, throughout Q1, Q2, which I think is the most important, and we were clear with what we wanted to do. And then in Q3, of course, it kept on raining, so it was very important to be out there quickly and get the laps in. Of course, I had to wait a long time at the end of the pit lane. You know, the tyres are cold, but it does give me like clean air and good vision, which I guess also helped to put the lap in. Looking at the race, it is difficult to know. I mean Fernando had a very good long run. The Ferraris were quite strong in the dry, including also Mercedes. So it’s a bit difficult to say at the moment.”
Perez: “It didn’t work out. I mean, when we went onto the slick, it was just the lap that it started raining. I needed a lap to get the tyre in the temperature in the working range, and then it just started raining, then we switched back to the intermediate, so it was all a bit half a lap, one lap a bit too late to get that lap in. It’s going to be hard to overtake, but we will try everything – we will try everything to come through the field.”
Alonso: “We’ve been unlucky generally with the red flags and in Q1 also, I think it was one second to see the line and then the red flag came just in that moment. And in Q3, yeah, it was I think four seconds before crossing the line to be in the first row. But, I mean, we take it. I’m extremely happy because it was very complex qualifying to execute and as they said, you need constant communication with the team. Sometimes you feel things on the car but then on TV, or on the pit lane, there are different ideas, so you need that feedback: engineer-driver. And yeah, it was a difficult day but we have a strong chance tomorrow to score many points. So, I’m happy.”
Hamilton: “Not bad at all. This is a good start for us, I think. It was the most difficult conditions out there, trying to get the temperature into the tyres, as obviously there’s not many high-speed corners so it’s difficult to generate temperature. But yeah… I was hoping for more, naturally, but we’ll take it and from there we can work on… Hopefully we can move forward from there. I definitely think a podium is on the cards tomorrow, yeah. I hope that we can compete with Alonso. It will be interesting to see how our long run performance is, but it would be good to have a battle with him.”
Leclerc: “I was frustrated after qualifying because I love my team and felt we could all have done a better job today. We have been working so hard and made a good step with the car for this weekend, so it was disappointing not to go through to Q3. We will pull together and work as a team to improve. I will give everything in the race to make up as many positions as possible and bring home a solid result for us.”
Sainz: “It was a very tough qualifying. After the incident in FP3 the guys did an amazing job to rebuild the car and I managed to get my confidence back bit by bit in Q1 and Q2, putting some decent laps together. I was looking forward to pushing hard in Q3, but unfortunately the red flag and later the heavy rain meant we couldn’t improve our time and missed out on a better result. My starting position is not ideal but tomorrow we’ll try our best to make up some places.”
The red flag due to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri’s crash in Q3 and weather situation helped Haas’ Hulkenberg to a front-row start. But an infringement of not keeping up with the speed earned him a penalty to drop him off second – still a respectable position.
Both the McLaren drivers found a Top 10 position as well with Lando Norris ahead of teammate Piastri, whose session ended in an incident. Williams’ Alexander Albon had a strong Q2 run too to make it in Q3 on an upgraded Williams, while Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu had a troublesome run to be knocked out in Q3 after red flag start.
Hulkenberg: “It’s definitely nice to have a strong qualifying result. Challenging conditions, like Max explained, but I feel like we stayed on top of the situation, had good communication throughout and clean laps. And yeah, hence, we rewarded ourselves with this nice, sweet Quali result. I think, like I said earlier, I think today we can take it, enjoy it. Take that moment with us. Obviously, we have to prepare for the race. We’ve got to be realistic. Recently our race pace hasn’t been the strongest point from us; actually, it was more always qualifying than race. On top of that yesterday was a difficult day with… anyway it was compromised and short running for everyone but even more so for myself. So, yeah, a lot of challenges to overcome that tomorrow and a big job anyways, but at least we start from a good position. For sure, there’s going to be a lot of heat from the back, there’s a lot of faster cars that will come through, but our focus is just to maximise tomorrow’s race and the potential.”
Piastri: “P9 and not the way I wanted to end qualifying. I don’t know how much more there would have been there, in terms of performance, but you never want to end qualifying that way and give the team more work, I certainly appreciate the work they’ll put in overnight to get us ready for tomorrow. Otherwise, I think we had a strong qualifying overall, making good decisions at the right time. It’s just a shame it ended like that. I’m feeling confident for tomorrow and hopefully we can stay in the points.”
Gasly: “I’m very disappointed with the outcome of today’s Qualifying and we can count ourselves unfortunate to be starting so far down on the grid. I was on for a good lap time in Q1, safe to easily progress to Q2, and then I was blocked in a dangerous manner in the braking zone for the final corner. The incident compromised both that lap and the next lap and it left us out in Q1. It’s very frustrating as there was a big opportunity today with the mixed conditions and we were not able to show our potential. We have an uphill task in the race from near the back of the grid but, as ever, I’ll be giving it my all to progress towards the points with the aim of coming away with something.”
Albon: “I’m happy. Firstly, we had good pace. In Q1 we were P6 and feeling good. In Q2, we didn’t need to take the risk with the slick tyres, but we made the call. I was actually quite surprised when I saw everyone roll out on Inters! But it was great to get through and to top the times. Q3 was a tricky one because it suddenly got much wetter and it became much harder to get the tyres in the window. I struggled a bit with that as it felt like the tyres were cooling down quite a lot on the straights when the rain picked up. I made a mistake when I lost tyre temperature going into the last corner, which I’m disappointed about and that was it really. Mixed emotions but looking at the weekend so far it’s a great qualifying result and shows as a team that we are getting there.”
Guanyu: “Qualifying has been quite frustrating for me; somehow, I lost the drive and found myself with no power. I had a lot of anti-stall, and at first I couldn’t even communicate with the team. I still somehow managed to bring the car back to the garage, and after a while, I went out again. Overall, it hasn’t been a clean session from my side: I was lacking grip, sliding quite a lot. We are yet to figure out what has actually happened, but we will make sure to investigate it to get it resolved properly. Still, nothing is lost: hopefully, we’ll figure it out ahead of tomorrow, and try to get back in the higher part of the grid.”
The Turn 1 barrier has been modified overnight after complaints from the drivers, with 4m removed to make it easier for them to rejoin in case they go off on the run-off. “The [original] change was done to avoid the possibility of a car going off at T1 and coming across the exit of T2 at speed and potentially t-boning another car,” stated the FIA to Motorsport Network. “Following discussion with the drivers we are making the change to allow them to rejoin more easily and will refine this solution further for future events.”
Here’s how F1 Canadian GP qualifying panned out