Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was able to shrug off difficult wet conditions in Montreal to pick up pole position for the start of Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix.
Nico Hulkenberg was especially fortunate to complete his Q3 lap just seconds before a red flag triggered by an accident for McLaren's Oscar Piastri, handing the Haas second spot on tomorrow's grid ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.
With pulses of rain sweeping over the circuit, the continually changing conditions had previously caught out Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez at the end of Q2 meaning the Ferrari will start from P11 and the Red Bull from P12.
It's been a while since we've had three different drivers at the top of the free practice sessions heading into qualifying. Valtteri Bottas had been fastest in the four-minute FP1 session curtailed due to CCTV safety issues at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve; Lewis Hamilton was quickest in the extended FP2 session which had ended in a downpour; and Max Verstappen was back in command on Saturday morning on a wet track, which had also finished in further heavy rain. But such was the disruption in the build-up, no one was quite sure who would turn out to have the upper hand on Saturday afternoon, with the weather holding all the aces.
Q1: Verstappen ahead of Alonso and Hamilton on damp track as more rain threatens
As the lights went green at the end of pit lane to get the first round of qualifying underway, the rain had abated for now. However the track was still wet from the soaking it had received at the end of FP3, so everyone was starting on intermediate tyres and the FIA gave a 90 per cent chance of further downpours. As a result, everyone was keen to get going and get some quick laps in the books; however this intention was immediately thwarted when Zhou Guanyu's Alfa Romeo failed to get up to speed and pulled over at turn 7. Although he did finally get underway with the help of the marshals, by then the red flag had already been shown.
When the session resumed there were 14 and a half minutes remaining on the clock. At the head of the queue to get out on track, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez led the way for Red Bull. Williams' Logan Sargeant posted an initial marker of 1:27.231s, half a second quicker than team mate Alex Albon, but he suggested there was already rain at turn 2. Verstappen soon took over control of the session with a time of 1:24.106s, until Fernando Alonso chopped off half a second off that time with his own effort. Verstappen promptly responded with a new time of 1:22.843s with Charles Leclerc up into second and Lewis Hamilton taking up fourth behind Alonso.
Carlos Sainz was able to go fifth fastest, showing no ill-effects from his accident in FP3 after the Ferrari engineers completed a speedy repair job in the interval between practice and qualifying. Alonso was still on it and briefly went back to the top with a time of 1:22.655s before Verstappen responded to go 0.667s quicker, while McLaren's Lando Norris promptly popped into third ahead of Leclerc.
The rapidly changing conditions meant that no one could afford mistakes or warm-up laps or to ease off. It was a continuous run of laps, each one quicker than the last as the inters cleared a progressively drier line. It allowed George Russell to jump out of the elimination zone to go fourth leaving Alpine's Pierre Gasly at risk of missing the cut along with Nyck de Vries, Yuki Tsunoda, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu.
Gasly soon improved to go P9, leaving Lance Stroll under pressure in his place not to disappoint the home fans. The Aston Martin finally delivered and his crucial flier was good enough for eighth, demoting Valtteri Bottas into the bottom five and on the brink of missing out. The Finn responded in turn and moved into the top ten, and now it was Gasly back under pressure. However Oscar Piastri and George Russell were also being backing worryingly close to the cut-off line.
Tsunoda made a late improvement to move ahead of Gasly, but it wasn't enough to dodge the elimination. Nor was Gasly able to do anything to avoid his fate as his final lap was spoiled by having to dodge around a slow Sainz dawdling on the racing line, an incident noted by the stewards for potential impeding. Accordingly, Gasly joined Tsunoda, de Vries, Sargeant and Zhou on the bench. At the other end, top honours had gone to Verstappen with a lap of 1:20.851s putting him ahead of Alonso, Hamilton, Russell, Leclerc and a strong effort from Albon in sixth putting the Williams ahead of Norris and Esteban Ocon.
Q2: Albon's slick gamble puts him top as Leclerc and Perez miss out
The rain was still holding off as the second round of qualifying got underway with a dry line now clearly defined in parts of the circuit, and race control even feeling the conditions warranted enabling DRS. Albon gambled by going out on a set of slick soft compounds and Leclerc was tempted to follow suit, but was talked into staying out for a banker lap first by his race engineer.
Verstappen once again took charge at the top with a time of 1:20.135s, three tenths ahead of the likes of Piastri, Alonso and Leclerc. But Russell was able to do better and went quicker still, albeit by just 0.037s from the Red Bull. Meanwhile Stroll pirouetted off at turn 6 to clip the wall, and was lucky to escape without any major damage.
Verstappen decided it was time for slicks, and other drivers joined him. Albon's first run on the softs had only been good enough for 12th but his second saw him fly to the top with a time of 1:18.725s, a full second ahead of Alonso's latest on the inters. So it was definitely time for slick tyres, then? Except Verstappen was already reporting spots of rain starting to fall again in parts of the circuit. It was a true crossover point: Norris was on the slicks and able to go fourth ahead of Russell who was on the inters, as Hamilton finally pitted for softs before it was too late, leaving him praying that the rain would hold off to let him improve his time - which it did, by the skin of his teeth.
As the rain started to fall in pit lane, Verstappen was able to punch in a time on the slicks good enough for second - but incredibly the Red Bull was still 0.367s slower than the Williams. Those drivers at risk of being caught out by the wildly changing conditions included Leclerc and Perez, the latter going off at turn 13 on his latest bid. By now the track conditions were rapidly falling away and the drivers were having to revert to the inters, making it even harder for those at risk to find the improvement needed.
As the chequered flag came out, Albon retained his spot at the top from Verstappen and the McLarens of Norris and Piastri, with Alonso in fifth from Sainz, Russell, Hulkenberg and Ocon. Hamilton just survived on the bubble meaning that Leclerc, Perez, Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas all missed out.
Q3: Verstappen on pole, Hulkenberg picks up second as Piastri crashes
The rain had eased off somewhat during the intermission but was once again building by the time the remaining ten cars got back out on track for the final pole shoot-out round. "It's raining, it's just getting worse and worse," the Haas pit wall told Nico Hulkenberg. Visibility was indeed becoming a major problem for everyone on track with vast amount of water spray being thrown up into the air. There was no question about tyre choice now, with everyone heading out on inters.
Verstappen's initial lap of 1:27.059s ahead of Alonso, Hamilton and Russell showed just how much the conditions had deteriorated. His second push lap clocked in at 1:25.858s, putting him over a second clear of the others which were now led by Hulkenberg. But by that point the red flags were out for an accident involving Piastri who had lost the rear coming out of turn 7 and gone into the barriers with quite a hefty hit.
There were just over seven minutes left to run when the session resumed, but with the rain intensifying there was no opportunity for the drivers to improve on their existing times. It means that Verstappen will share the front row for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix with Hulkenberg. Alonso and Hamilton will line up alongside each other on the second row ahead of Russell and Ocon, leaving Norris in seventh ahead of Sainz pending the outcome of the stewards review of the Ferrari's impeding incident in Q1.
Piastri was shown in ninth ahead of Albon, who had overshot the chicane on his one run before the red flag meaning the Williams had not set a time in the final round.
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