#Vettel snatches #CanadianGP pole from @LewisHamilton. #F1

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has claimed pole position for tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix snatching it off Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of Q3 as the former’s team-mate Charles Leclerc completed the top three pending an investigation.

 

 

Vettel was provisional second on the time-sheet after the initial runs in Q3, but the German put in a blinding lap to jump Mercedes’ Hamilton to take his first pole of the season by 0.206 seconds.

 

Hamilton did improve on his second flyer but only by 0.047 seconds, which was enough for the Briton to keep his spot on the front row.

 

The second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc went slower in the final sector on his last hot lap and wound up nearly fourth tenths adrift of Hamilton to take third.

 

However, Leclerc is currently under investigation for rejoining the circuit at the turn eight and nine chicane for driving on the wrong side of the bollard earlier in the session.

 

The top three will all be starting on the C4 yellow-marked medium rubber after using that set in Q2 along with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.

 

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo took an impressive fourth place on the grid, pipping Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly by eight thousandths of a second.

 

Bottas aborted his initial Q3 run after spinning as he exited the second corner and had an error-filled lap on his final flyer as the Finn starts in sixth.

 

The other Renault of Nico Hulkenberg was seventh and starts ahead of the two McLaren MCL34’s of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz who qualified eighth and ninth respectively.

 

Sainz wound up 2.1 seconds slower than team-mate Norris after abandoning his final hot lap with the Spaniard having to run on a used set of soft compounds to post his time on the initial flyer.

 

Sainz is also currently under investigation by the stewards for impeding Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon at turn two during the first qualifying stage.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen qualified tenth but could not take part in Q3 after crashing exiting the final corner on his final flyer in Q2 and bringing the session to a premature end.

 

The Dane lost the rear of his Ferrari-powered VF-19 racer out of the final part of the chicane and clipped the wall before spinning heavily into the pit-wall on the inside of the circuit.

 

Magnussen’s crash lead to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen’s shock elimination in Q2 and ended up 11th.

 

Verstappen was on a set of fresh softs at the time of the incident, which would have put the Dutchman into the top ten shootout.

 

He began the session on the mediums as the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers on their initial runs in Q2 with the hope of starting on the more durable compound, but Verstappen could not get the perfect lap and complained of traffic affecting his flyer, which forced him to run again.

 

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat had only one set of fresh soft for his timed run to take 12th on the grid and qualified ahead of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi who was 13th.

 

Albon in the other STR14 Toro Rosso was 14th quickest and starts in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean who takes 15th on the grid with the latter suggesting his tyre preparation was compromised by rushing out at the start of his last hot lap after being delayed at the weighbridge.

 

Grosjean did not set a time in Q2 due to having only one fresh set of soft tyres and getting caught out by team-mate Magnussen’s shunt ahead of him on his flyer.

 

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez qualified 16th on the grid and escaped a Q1 exit with the Mexican taking the place from Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen – who was knocked by team-mate Giovinazzi earlier.

 

The other Racing Point of Lance Stroll will start a low 18th at his home Grand Prix as his string of Q1 exits continued, although the Canadian switched back to an earlier engine after suffering a failure on the upgraded power-unit in FP3 and was 0.069 seconds slower than team-mate Perez.

 

The spare engine was still on hand for any Mercedes-powered outfit to use but was not enough time to make the change to it’s right specification for the Silverstone-squad in time for qualifying.

 

The two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica brought up the rear with the latter 0.776 seconds off his team-mate.

 

The Top Three

 

Pole Position – Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “He’s bloody good in qualifying, hard to crack! ” explained Vettel motioning at Hamilton. “Really enjoyed it, very happy for the team, the last weeks have been quite tough for us.”

 

2nd – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “I don’t know for whatever reason, I don’t feel disappointed. This is good, this is how racing should be. Tomorrow, the racing should be interesting!”

 

3rd – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “I struggled with the car, with the setup maybe. I felt good in Q1, but didn’t really follow the track as it was getting better. Congratulations to Seb, he completely deserves it and hopefully I’ll have a better race on my side.”

 

Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix Du Canada 2019 Qualifying Results Classification

 

POS	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP
1	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	1m10.240s	–
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	1m10.446s	0.206s
3	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	1m10.920s	0.680s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	1m11.071s	0.831s
5	Pierre Gasly	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	1m11.079s	0.839s
6	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	1m11.101s	0.861s
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault F1 Team	1m11.324s	1.084s
8	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1m11.863s	1.623s
9	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1m13.981s	3.741s
10	Kevin Magnussen	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	–	–
11	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	1m11.800s	–
12	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1m11.921s	–
13	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	1m12.136s	–
14	Alexander Albon	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1m12.193s	–
15	Romain Grosjean	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	–	–
16	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1m12.197s	–
17	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	1m12.230s	–
18	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1m12.266s	–
19	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	1m13.617s	–
20	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	1m14.393s	–