Verstappen takes pole position, Alonso second after rain in Canada

Two of the greatest talents in F1 history went head-to-head in a battle for pole position on a completely wet track. On the one hand, reigning champion Max Verstappen is at the wheel of the best car on the grid. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso wanted to make history by returning to pole position for the first time with Aston Martin after more than a decade. Two people from completely different generations face each other. Two champions who respected each other immensely and looked forward to facing each other in difficult circumstances. At Barcelona, ​​Alonso was unable to get up to the end after a mistake he made at the start of ‘qualifying’ destroyed the bottom of his car. He didn’t want to miss the chance that Canadian waters offered him. Last year, it was the track where Alpine achieved a miracle of 2nd place qualifying in wet conditions.. but, With seven minutes remaining, an accident occurred that prevented the fight from continuing and brought it all to a halt.

Verstappen took pole position ahead of Hulkenberg (2nd) and Alonso (3rd). However, a red flag was shown on the track and a subsequent penalty for Nico for not slowing down enough resulted in a third-place penalty (5th) for the German. Alonso therefore starts second to Hamilton (3rd) and Russell (4th). This Sunday’s race is expected to be dry.

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Alonso was 20 seconds slower than Max on his first attempt. i was there. Max improved his time as the track progressed. Hulkenberg, who finished second at Haas. Alonso, too, was trying to improve his times to dream of being up front and fighting. However, due to Piastri’s accident, the red flag was shown just before Alonso crossed the finish line. I was 3rd and after the break it started to rain. Alonso said from the pitlane, “We can’t improve at this rate.” I was clear The pole was already decided. Max certainly achieved it on his own, but the Spaniard never had a chance to fight to the end.

Red Bull moved the card better on the wall. He always put Verstappen first in the pit lane in case it rained so he could set a lap time first. Having a car that warms the tires well helps. Hulkenberg used his pit position to close behind Max. And that resulted in change. But after Nico’s penalty, Alonso secured a spot in the starting line-up alongside the Dutchman on Sunday.

Now Alonso is staring at the podium. He is targeting his sixth podium in eight races. Will he be able to work with Max? Alonso said it’s still too early to make the most of some positive developments, but perhaps they will help get a little closer. “The new parts are great and they did what we expected them to do, so we are happy with that. That is a positive sign. I don’t think we’re at that level yet, but maybe we can get a little closer than 20 or 30 seconds away.”

Sainz, it’s a bad day

Carlos Sainz was eighth in Q3, but a subsequent penalty forced him to start eleventh. He said he lifted his leg before the final corner to attack on the next lap. But then the red flags came out from Piastri and it started to rain. He could no longer improve. It was the icing on Saturday, quite the opposite of what I wanted.

Carlos Sainz arrives with a very good option to fight for the top of his class at this Saturday’s Canadian Grand Prix. He felt very comfortable behind the wheel of a Ferrari at the last Grand Prix and had just finished second in the Barcelona class while his partner struggled in the rain and crashed in Q1. Carlos Sainz showed confidence behind the wheel of his car on Friday and had a good weapon to attack this Saturday. But it wasn’t his day.

Shortly after setting his second fastest time in Free Practice 2, the Madrid native hit the wall at Turn 1 on a delicate track under the influence of water. So in qualifying I had to regain my confidence directly. And there he was damaged by the inaction of the wall. At the end of Q1, with many cars lapping and looking for gaps as the track improved, he fell behind at the last corner of the penultimate track heading into the final lap. But at that moment Pierre Gasly approached and was stopped by Carlos. “We were going 300 kilometers per hour!” enraged the French pilot.

Carlos didn’t get a warning to stay away from the wallthe same as happened to Leclerc in Monaco was penalized. Sainz also received a third-place penalty and will start 11th on Sunday.he will have to come back to the canadian race I don’t know if I can push with less deterioration at Ferrari this time than I did at Barcelona.

Leclerc and Perez, sunk

Charles Leclerc and “Czech” Perez don’t lift their heads. The Monaco Ferrari driver was 11th (sainz’s penalty moved him up to start 10th). He fell outside the top 10 in yesterday’s qualifying session and missed out on qualifying for the final round of Q3. In the wet, where hands are most important and the ability of drivers and teams to read the changing track conditions, ‘Il Principino’ has failed again for the second time in a row. In Barcelona, ​​it was already a surprising result when he was eliminated in Q1 in 19th while team-mate Carlos Sainz finished second. Leclerc then realized that something had gone wrong with his car, that something was wrong in the left-hand corner and that he needed to analyze it. But two weeks later, Charles admitted that the team had found nothing unusual in the car. Yesterday in Canada, the asphalt was still wet and the conditions changed from Q1 to Q2, so we had to remove that ‘thorn’. However, according to the pilot, the wall apparently misjudged and sank into the waters of Canada.

As Leclerc himself explained to DAZN F1: Clearly the team did not share the same opinion as me on the switch to soft. We stayed in the intermediates and the laps weren’t good enough for Q3, then we changed to soft and the rain came. We are out of order and have made life difficult for ourselves. It was clearly for the softs at the beginning and we had a good chance to get some good lap times. But we had a middle ground. Our lives have become complicated. The team has to improve. Because it’s not the first, second, or third time we made the wrong decision. we have to change this. ”

Meanwhile, ‘Czech’ Perez finished 12th.Three races in a row for a Mexican driver without making it to Q3It is therefore impossible for him, who has the best car on the grid, to make things difficult for Max Verstappen in the title fight.

The Mexican has waned as the championship progresses, already trailing team-mate reigning world champions by 53 points, and looks like he has a clear path to a third crown. . Unlike Perez, Max is always there.