Verstappen on pole at Canadian GP as Hulkenberg trumps both Mercedes drivers

Lewis Hamilton shows off his impressive surfing skills

Max Verstappen managed to put himself on pole position for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso at the end of a thoroughly entertaining wet-dry qualifying session on Saturday. The indecisive conditions in Montreal saw plenty of teams struggle with their tyre strategies, with Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc both missing out on Q3 in spite of their best efforts.

The session got off to the worst possible start when Zhou Guanyu lost power just moments after emerging from the pit lane in Q1 before parking up at the side of the circuit to bring out the red flags. He eventually managed to get going again, though, which ensured that a lengthy delay was avoided.

The wet conditions caused plenty of problems during the early stages of qualifying, with Lando Norris and Nyck de Vries among those to run off at Turn One just hours after Carlos Sainz had crashed heavily at the same area in FP3. Several other drivers, including Verstappen, Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, struggled to keep it between the white lines elsewhere given the lack of grip across the entirety of the circuit.

Pierre Gasly was the biggest name to fall in Q1, with the Frenchman only coming home in 17th after being held up by a handful of cars at the final chicane on his last attempt. A pack of drivers all wanted to be the last across the start line but ended up blocking Gasly from setting a meaningful lap before Yuki Tsunoda, Nyck de Vries, Logan Sargeant and Zhou joined the Alpine ace in the bottom five.

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The lap times began to tumble in Q2 after the formation of a dry racing line as teams started to experiment with slick tyres, although light rain continued to fall in some areas of the circuit. The tricky conditions led to a jumbled-up finishing order at the end of the 15-minute session, with Perez and Leclerc both missing out on the top 10 alongside Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas.

Leclerc was once again left frustrated with Ferrari’s decision-making process and was clearly furious with his team over the radio after he was knocked out in 12th place. The Monegasque driver asked for a new set of dry tyres as the clock ticked down in Q2 but was ignored by Ferrari, who have been consistently letting him down with their questionable strategy calls over the last few years.

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Oscar Piastri then brought out the red flags for a second time in the early stages of Q3 when he lost the back end of his McLaren car out of Turn Eight and slammed into the wall. The incident coincided with a heavier spell of rain, which started to fall as Piastri’s stricken vehicle was being cleared, meaning that no drivers were able to improve on their first lap times for the rest of the session.

It meant that Verstappen managed to clinch pole position ahead of Hulkenberg, who squeezed across the finish line at the end of his flying lap attempt just seconds before the session was suspended. Alonso, meanwhile, came home in third ahead of Hamilton, George Russell, Esteban Ocon and Lando Norris.

Canadian Grand Prix starting grid top 10

Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

George Russell (Mercedes)

Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

Lando Norris (McLaren)

Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

Alexander Albon (Williams)

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