#CanadianGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen claims pole as @alo_oficial shines. #F1

Verstappen Canadian GP pole – Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen beat Alpine’s Fernando Alonso to pole position in qualifying at the Canadian GP as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rounded out the top three.

 

 

As the rain fell throughout the day in Montreal, it meant qualifying took place in similar wet conditions to the earlier Free Practice 3 session where Alonso was fastest.

 

The double world-champion stunned fellow Spanish-compatriot Sainz into second spot on the grid with his final flyer in Q3, where all drivers were fuelled to run fro the whole 12 minutes to take advantage of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve drying up and the tyres being worked into the optimal working range.

 

Verstappen was untouchable with his pace, leading from the start of the final qualifying stage as he worked the benchmark down to a 1:21.299 effort.

 

Sainz looked like he could run Verstappen close after posting the quickest sector one time on his final hot-lap, but whilst he remained in contention despite losing a touch in sector two, a big slide exiting the last corner meant he dropped enough time for Alonso to pounce ahead of the Ferrari driver a few moments later.

 

Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth on the grid, which saw the Silver Arrows split it’s strategy by putting C5 soft rubber on George Russell’s F1 W13 racer, a decision that backfired when the Briton spun at the opening corners on his initial tour on the slicks.

 

Russell fell from the leading positions to eighth by the end of the final segment, as Haas F1 Team pairing Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher lead in pushing the Mercedes driver down by taking fifth and sixth places respectively.

 

Then came the other Alpine A522 entry of Esteban Ocon in-front of Russell, whilst McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Gunayu completed the top ten.

 

Zhou was also one of the few drivers which faced a post-qualifying investigation for their driving in off-track moments throughout all three sessions or trying to find space in the traffic during the earlier proceedings.

 

Q2 began with drivers split on their strategies over remaining on the full wets used throughout the opening Q1 segment or switching to the green-branded intermediate compounds, with Alonso using that tyre as he lead the way early on in that phase, just before Red Bull’s Sergio Perez brought out the red flag going off into the barriers at the turns three and four chicane.

 

The Mexican was also on the intermediates, but locked his front-right and after clutching the other front-break, the Red Bull driver slid across the grass and hit the barriers.

 

Although his RB18 racer did not appear to be massively damaged, Perez took a long time to put his car in reverse and when he did, he was unable to move backwards as his nose was stuck in the barriers so he was told to switch off his engine, with the barriers then needing re-arranging once his RB18 had been craned away without his front-wing.

 

When the session went green following a 12-minute stoppage, all remaining drivers emerged as a dry line began to appear.

 

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc did not opt to join them as by getting into Q2 secured his starting spot in-front of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda at the rear of the pack thanks to their power-unit component change grid-penalties, but McLaren’s Lando Norris also did not appear at the start of the remaining nine minutes in the second qualifying stage.

 

Norris reported an engine issue before the red-flag, which left the Briton in the McLaren garage until there were only two minutes remaining as the Woking-based outfit attempted to fix the problem, and although Norris did get out for one flying lap, he was soon instructed to pit again after lapping several seconds adrift.

 

By not posting a lap-time after the red flag, Norris’ effort from the beginning of Q2 left him in 14th on the grid and behind Perez’s best time from before his shunt, with Leclerc not participating in the second qualifying stage and so being eliminated in 15th ahead of his pre-Grand Prix grid drop.

 

With three cars in trouble or not on the circuit, only two drivers were at risk of elimination and when Hamilton had jumped up the classification with his last flyer, the pressure mounted on Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Alpine’s Ocon.

 

The first two posted personal best efforts with Bottas ahead, but Ocon’s improvement with the final tour in Q2, which Verstappen was quickest, eliminated the Finn.

 

Like in Q3 and Q2, all drivers generally ran throughout the opening qualifying stage as the times tumbled by around six seconds as they blew away the water off the racing line, other than the big puddles of standing water on the apexes of the first two corners and at the exit of the hairpin later in the lap, with Verstappen also topping Q1.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly got knocked out in 16th, with the Frenchman reporting a suspected brake issue on his front-left wheel, which possibly lead to his off-track excursion late in the opening segment across the turns nine and ten chicane.

 

Gasly also momentarily went off circuit, but by not staying left of the bollard in the run-off area ahead of the short straight on the run-down to the hairpin, he did not follow the race director’s instructions and also faced a post-qualifying investigation by the stewards.

 

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was annoyed being eliminated in Q1 following an impressive third place in the earlier Free Practice Three session, as team-mate Lance Stroll followed in 18th place as it marked a poor qualifying for the Silverstone-based squad.

 

The other home favourite for Williams Racing, Nicholas Latifi, was also knocked out in 19th place, finishing in-front of Tsunoda, who pitted a few minutes ahead of the end of Q1 knowing he would start on the back row.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 AWS Canadian Grand Prix 2022 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1113/canada/qualifying.html

 

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2022 Canadian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

 

 

2022 Canadian GP Pole – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing-RBPT, RB18, 1:21.299:

“I think today with the tricky conditions we stayed calm, didn’t make mistakes and to get the pole is great. We always enjoy driving here and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

 

2nd Place – Fernando Alonso, #14, BWT Alpine F1 Team-Renault, A522, 1:21.944:

“It feels great. Unbelievable weekend so far for us. Thanks to the wet conditions, the car was mega, I was so comfortable driving this car. I think we’ll attack Max in the first corner!”

 

3rd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75, 1:22.096:

“Today, I was feeling quite okay with the car in the full wet. As the track was drying I felt the others did a step. Just trying to go for it, but for the rest, I think we’re in a good position for tomorrow. Let’s see what we can do with Fernando as he’s been very quick all weekend.”

 

In the earlier FP3 session, it was Alpine’s Alonso topping the time-sheets in the wet conditions, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Gasly who was second and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who completed the top three with the second Alpine A522 entry of Ocon fourth and McLaren’s Norris completing the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 AWS Canadian Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1113/canada/practice-3.html

 

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