Verstappen takes F1 pole like Alonso stars

Rain throughout the day in Montreal led to qualifying in humid conditions similar to FP3 earlier on Saturday afternoon, which was led by Alonso.

The Alps Driver Sainz surprised by moving to second with the final Q3 lap time, all drivers refueled to run throughout the session to benefit from track drying and tires running in their optimum working range.

Verstappen was untouchable, leading from the exit in Q3 and working the pole standard all the way to 1m21.299s.

Sainz looked like he could get close to Verstappen having put in the quickest first sector on the last lap, but while he stayed in the competition despite losing a bit in the middle sector, a big slip coming out of the last corner meant he wasted enough time for Alonso. He advanced on his Spanish colleague after a few moments.

Lewis Hamilton ranked fourth for mercedeswhich split its strategy in the late third quarter by installing soft-maters on George Russell’s car, a decision that backfired when the Briton rounded opening corners on his first lap on the spots.

Russell dropped from the leading positions to eighth by the end of the third quarter, with the Haas duo Kevin Magnussen And the Mick Schumacher He leads in pushing the Briton down by taking fifth and sixth places.

Then it came Esteban OconWhile Daniel Ricciardo And the Zhou Guanyu Rounding out the top ten.

Zhou is one of many drivers who face a post-session investigation for driving them through a slew of off-track moments during qualifying or trying to find space in traffic during earlier segments.

Q2 started with drivers split over staying on full moisture used throughout the first quarter or switching to the mids, with Alonso using this compound on the road early in the segment, just before that. Sergio Perez Causes a red flag to appear in the curbs at Turns 3/4 chicane.

The Red Bull driver was also at the fork, but he locked the front right and after grabbing the other front brake he slid across the grass and quickly climbed into the curbs.

Although his car did not appear to be significantly damaged, Perez took a long time to engage in reverse and when he did he was unable to move backward because his nose was buried in the baffles, so he was instructed to stop his engine, with the baffles at that time needing to Rearrange once his car is pushed away minus its front wing.

When the session restarted after a 12-minute delay, all remaining drivers turned back on at the intersections, with a dry line starting to appear.

Leclerc didn’t bother to join them because by reaching Q2, he was able to start earlier Yuki Tsunoda In the back of the network thanks to their network change penalties, but Lando Norris It also did not appear at the start of the remaining nine minutes of Q2.

Norris reported an engine problem before the red flag pinned him to McLaren There were only two minutes left as the team tried to find and correct the problem, and although he was out for one lap, he was quickly ordered to dig again after running a few seconds off the pace.

By not setting a time after the red flag, Norris’ banker’s lap since the start of the second quarter left him 14th behind Perez’s best time before his exit, with Leclerc not participating in any part in the middle segment and thus exiting 15th. From the net drop before the race.

With three cars in trouble or not on the right track, only two drivers were at risk of disqualification and when Hamilton jumped on the last lap the pressure was on. Alex AlbonAnd the Valtteri Bottas and Ocon.

The first two named set personal bests with Bottas ahead, but Ocon’s improvement with the last lap of Q2, which Verstappen topped, ousted the Finn.

As in Q3 and Q2, all drivers generally ran throughout the opening segment as times improved by about six seconds as they blew water away from the race line, other than big puddles of standing water at the tops of the first two corners and a hairpin exit late off the lap, with Verstappen finishing on top.

Pierre Gasly He was eliminated in 16th place with AlphaTauri He reported having a brake problem on this left front wheel, which may have contributed to his shutdown late in Q1 via Turns 9/10 chicane.

Gasly was only briefly off the track but by not staying to the left of the barrier in the replay just before the short track and down to the hair turn, he did not follow the race directors’ instructions and therefore will face an investigation after the session.

Sebastian Vettel He was frustrated to be eliminated in 17th after finishing third in a similar wet FP3 session earlier on Saturday afternoon, with 18th Lance Stroll doubling as a miserable qualification for Aston Martin.

Another home hero, Williams driver Nicholas Latifiwas eliminated in 19th place, ending up in front of Tsunoda, who pitted several minutes before the end of Q1 knowing he would start in the back row anyway.