World Champion Max Verstappen confirmed his role as favorite in qualifying ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. The Dutchman clinched his second pole of the season and the 15th of his Formula 1 career on Saturday on a partially wet track in Montreal.
“The conditions were difficult,” said Verstappen before the ninth round of the World Cup on Sunday (8 p.m. CEST / ORF, Sky). “I’m very satisfied. Pole position here is great.” Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko spoke of a “demonstration of power” on ORF television. “At times he was a second ahead and without any uncertainty. I haven’t seen such an impressive performance in a long time.”
Alonso, 40, was happy to have had an “incredible weekend” up until then. “The car was mega. I felt so good driving it and the fans pushed me further.” The Spaniard last started from pole position on the front row in Germany in 2012. “I think we will attack Max in the first corner tomorrow,” he said with a grin.
Montreal record winner Lewis Hamilton came fourth in the Mercedes, behind him are the two Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher. It was the best qualifying result in the history of the US racing team. Verstappen’s Red Bull colleague Sergio Perez got stuck in the barriers after a ride in Q2 and was unable to continue. In the end, position 13 remained for the Mexican.
Leclerc starts from the back
Ferrari man Leclerc, on the other hand, has to start his race to catch up from last place. After new engine components had already been installed in the Ferrari of the Monegasque on Friday, the team decided on Saturday to exchange several parts again. Among other things, Leclerc got its fourth combustion engine this year, only three of which are allowed per season.
Leclerc is also one unit above the permitted limit for the turbocharger, the MGU-H and MGU-K energy recovery systems and the electrics. The penalties added up, meaning he had to start from the back regardless of qualifying, which he completed without a try in Q2. It’s relatively easy to overtake on the long straights of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Presumably this played a big part in the decision to go through with the full engine swap this weekend.
For the 24-year-old it is the next setback in the fight for the world title. After being on pole four times recently, but not winning any of the races, instead not finishing twice, Leclerc is only third in the classification behind Perez. He is 34 points behind World Championship leader Verstappen.
In the third free practice session before qualifying, the track was already wet, Leclerc was the only one in the field who limited himself to installation laps and had no time. The two-time world champion Alonso was the quickest to complete the course under the difficult conditions. 0.053 seconds behind the Alpine pilot was Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri, third was Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin. The latter two had to give up almost two hours later in the first qualifying segment.
Source: Nachrichten
