Verstappen has never managed to take pole position in Canada before. In 2018, the Limburger achieved his best result at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, by finishing third and setting the fastest lap. On Sunday, Verstappen will go on the hunt for the first Canadian victory in his Formula 1 career.
In the final training session earlier on Friday, Verstappen spun a bit without consequences, but shortly before his spin he said he had hardly any grip on the intermediate tire. In Q1, Verstappen qualified fastest, while it was over after the first session for Pierre Gasly, Nicholas Latifi, Lance Stroll, Yuki Tsunoda and Sebastian Vettel.
At the start of the second part of qualifying, Verstappen came out on full wets, but during the session the Dutchman said that in his opinion it was more a track for intermediates. However, his engineer made it clear to the Red Bull driver that he had to set a time on full wets. Halfway through Q2, qualifying for Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Pérez came to an abrupt end. The right front wheel of the Mexican blocked and the number 2 in the battle for the world title crashed into the wall.
Fifteen minutes after Pérez’s hit, Q2 was resumed and, in addition to the Mexican, Charles Leclerc also stopped driving. The Monegask will start from the back during the race on Sunday due to a new engine and called it quits after the break. The other three dropouts in Q2 were Alexander Albon, Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris, while Verstappen was again fastest, setting pursuer Alonso by a good second. The Dutchman said the car and tires felt good, and asked his team to get the slicks ready for Q3 just in case.
In that third qualifying session, all drivers came out on intermediates, where the track became increasingly drier due to the stopped rainfall. George Russell took the gamble halfway through Q1 by going on slicks, but it backfired for the Brit, who shot through the end of the track short. Verstappen continued to impress and drove convincingly to pole position.
The race in Canada is the ninth of this Grand Prix season on Sunday. The lights in Montreal go out on Sunday evening at 8 p.m. Dutch time. Verstappen leads the ranking with 150 points, ahead of teammate and number 2 Pérez (129) and number 3 Leclerc (116).
Look at here all previous results, standings in the standings and the full Grand Prix calendar.