Chain thunderclaps on the track Saturday in Montreal! George Russell (Mercedes) took pole position for the Canadian GP with the same time as Max Verstappen (Red Bull), while the two Ferraris are absent from the Top 10.
The Briton, very comfortable since the start of the weekend, snatched the second pole position of his career from under the nose of the triple world champion, who had to bow to the regulations.
In the event of a perfect tie on the timesheet, it is the driver who achieved his time first who is ahead of his opponent, and Russell accomplished this in the middle of Q3 while Verstappen, as is often the case, waited until the last seconds of the session, which this time was detrimental to him on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit.
“It’s been a long time since I felt that way! It’s also been a long time since we were fighting with the best and the hard work of the whole team ended up paying off… We were very fast today,” savored the 26-year-old Mercedes driver, whose only pole until then dates back to July 2022 in Hungary.
Under a threatening sky which even dropped a few drops of rain but not enough to make the track slippery, the Mercedes were dominant on Saturday and are recovering after a difficult start to the season.
Dutchman Max Verstappen (left) congratulates George Russell (Mercedes). Both drivers set the same time during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, but the Briton will start from pole position, having achieved his performance with the Red Bull driver / Shawn Thew / POOL/AFP/Archives
Already struggling two weeks ago in Monaco, Verstappen has not yet returned to his best level even if he limited the damage during qualifying. After a breakdown of ERS, the energy recovery system, on Friday, the Dutchman was not completely at ease on Saturday and will have to fight on Sunday to hope to win.
“Mercedes was really very fast and our weekend has been quite messy so far with quite a few small problems. We tried to find the best settings for qualifying and it didn’t go too bad. But we have to manage to have cleaner weekends”cursed Verstappen.
McLaren confirmed that it would still be necessary to count on its papaya single-seaters on Sunday in the fight for victory by taking third and fourth places thanks to the Briton Lando Norris, who failed only 21 thousandths from the best time, and the Australian Oscar Piastri.
Ferrari in the tough
The other huge surprise of the day was the elimination of the two Ferraris in Q2, a first since the end of 2020 in Abu Dhabi. Monegasque Charles Leclerc, winner two weeks ago in Monaco, will start only in 11th position, ahead of his Spanish teammate Carlos Sainz.
Thunderclap on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit where the Ferraris missed out on qualifying on June 8, 2024. Monegasque Charles Leclerc, two weeks after his victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, will only start in 11th position on the grid / Shawn Thew / POOL/AFP/Archives
“We weren’t fast and on top of that we didn’t manage well so the two put together means we didn’t make it through Q2… We’ve just been slow since we’ve been in the dry , we can’t get the tires to work. It’s frustrating to go from such a good weekend to such a bad weekend, but I hope we can make up for it in the race. I am quite confident that we can regain performance”explained Leclerc, current second in the driver rankings, at the microphone of Canal+.
A few days after extending his contract with Red Bull for two years, Mexican Sergio Pérez also completely missed his qualifying by achieving a very disappointing 16th time.
On the French side, Alpine did not confirm in Quebec the slight progress observed in recent weeks by achieving its third worst qualifying of the season. The Grand Prix on Sunday therefore promises to be very complicated for the brand with the A arrow, which will have a hard time scoring points since its highest ranked car, that of Frenchman Pierre Gasly, will only start in 15th place.
His compatriot Esteban Ocon, only set the 18th fastest time and will start in 20th and last position on Sunday given the five-place grid penalty he received after his unfortunate overtaking attempt on his teammate in Monaco ago. two weeks.
