Formula 1 driver Nico Hülkenberg surprisingly secured second place on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix. In the rain in Montreal, the Haas driver only had to admit defeat to world championship leader Max Verstappen in the Red Bull in a turbulent qualifying session.
For defending champion Verstappen it is the 25th pole position of his career. Third was the Spaniard Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin ahead of the Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Hulkenberg benefited from the fact that the hunt for a starting position was interrupted immediately after his fastest lap due to an accident by McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. Because the weather didn’t improve, none of the competitors was able to overtake the 35-year-old Rhinelander on the soaking wet track. “It was a wild qualifier, pretty crazy,” he said.
The Canadian weekend got off to a bad start for the driver from Emmerich with a major engine failure in Friday practice. “I’ll just go out there and give it my all,” said Hülkenberg, describing his motto for the eighth race of the season on Sunday (8 p.m.).
In the end, Verstappen showed his class in difficult conditions. “I’m from the Netherlands, we’re used to rain,” said the 25-year-old.
Rain in Montreal already messes up training
Formula 1 is experiencing a changeable weekend in Montreal. Already on Friday the pilots had to deal with some adversities. The first practice session had to be interrupted after four minutes for safety reasons and finally canceled because the video surveillance of the track wasn’t working. A power failure was probably the cause of the technical breakdown.
Sainz crash im final training
In the final practice session on Saturday, the constant rain presented the drivers and teams with a new challenge. On the very uneven track, many drivers had trouble steering their company car over a fast lap without having an accident. Spaniard Carlos Sainz lost control of his Ferrari in turn one and crashed heavily into the gang. In the two hours before qualifying, however, his mechanics were able to get the car roadworthy again.