Canadian Grand Prix: F1 Qualifying Results

Canadian Grand Prix: F1 Qualifying Results

Formula 1’s weekend in Montreal has seen mixed conditions across all the sessions, so who was able to take pole in qualifying?

Abby Bathurst 6 min read

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Formula 1 returned to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix weekend and today’s Qualifying saw a tense fight for pole position with shock eliminations.

Canadian Grand Prix: F1 Qualifying Results
A view of Montreal ahead of Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix. (Credit: X @F1)

Round 9 of the 2024 Formula 1 season is underway with all three practice sessions and qualifying complete. FP1 and FP2 saw limited running due to the wet conditions on track. However, the fastest drivers on Friday were Lando Norris with eight laps and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin with 25 laps completed.

Today’s FP3 session saw Mercedes demonstrating a strong performance in the dry session. Unfortunately for Sauber, Zhou Guanyu once again brought out the Red Flag, having done so already on Friday. Ferrari’s performance from Monaco doesn’t seem to have continued with issues for both drivers and Red Bull also suffered from problems; Max Verstappen’s car did catch fire so the team put a new engine into the RB20 having dismantled a lot of the car to resolve the fire issue.

Ahead of Qualifying, it was announced that Yuki Tsunoda will be staying with Visa Cash App RB for 2025, having signed a contract extension. But, in the one-hour session of qualifying, it was George Russell who took pole position for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

With an 80% chance of rain and issues for several teams persisting in practice, it was a rather interesting session, so let’s get into what happened in Qualifying.

Q1

The first third of Qualifying began with McLaren radioing to Lando Norris that there are “light drops” at Turn 7 and Turn 8. Due to the impending rain, all teams had both drivers out on track at the start to get in a banker lap, apart from Mercedes. The Silver Arrows were the last out on track, having waited in the pits for a bit.

With 20 cars on track, times were beginning to be set. Verstappen set the initial benchmark, but Norris topped it going 0.609 seconds faster with a 1:14.585.

Unfortunately for the Miami Grand Prix driver, Lance Stroll soon topped the timesheets, going only 0.066 seconds faster. His teammate, Fernando Alonso, soon followed suit going P1.

However, the Mercedes drivers then completed their first flying laps going P1 and P3 with George Russell ahead. Carlos Sainz had a time deleted.

As more drivers completed fast laps, the timings were getting quicker.

The replays showed that Stroll had hit the Wall of the Champions a couple of times, whilst Russell took to the grass at one point. The Yellow Flags were briefly brought out but were quickly resolved.

With nine minutes to go, Hamilton, who initially went third, was at risk. Fortunately for the Brit, he was able to replicate his initial P3 and was out of the bottom five.

Norris then states that he was impeded by Tsunoda and Hamilton whilst Charles Leclerc said a similar thing about an Alpine driver.

Five minutes to go

With five minutes to go, the five drivers at risk were: Piastri, Perez, Gasly, Ocon and Zhou. Perez was completing a lap, however, he aborted it and came into the pits.

Gasly managed to get out of the bottom five, going second fastest behind Russell. Piastri followed suit but could only go 11th fastest, and was eventually bumped back down into the bottom five. However, Ocon also got into the top 10 too.

Verstappen complained about the downshifts on his car as he sat in eighth with two minutes left of the session. Hamilton moved up to the top spot on the timesheets, ahead of Norris in P2. Ultimately though, Verstappen ended the session on top.

The timesheets swapped around in the final 30 seconds, but a number of drivers were on flying laps at the end of the session.

Out of Q1

With the timings getting faster, the five drivers who were out of Q1 were:

16 – Sergio Perez

17 – Valtteri Bottas

18 – Esteban Ocon

19 – Nico Hulkenberg

20 – Zhou Guanyu

Perez had another shocker of a Saturday and his frustration was evident over his radio and his action of punching the steering wheel.

For Ocon, whilst he qualified 18th, he has a five-place grid drop so will start last.

Q2

As the second Qualifying session began, the crowds in the grandstands were putting their rain ponchos on and the cameras saw rain falling as well.

The Mercedes drivers were the first out on track and were the only team to have more fresh sets of softs, having used only one set in Q1. Russell’s first flying lap of the session saw him set a time of 1:13.121, but was beaten by Hamilton by a couple of hundredths.

Soon though, Piastri went P1, going 0.642 seconds faster than Hamilton. Verstappen couldn’t beat the McLaren driver, but he was using an old set of softs.

Verstappen, however, then complained about Russell being in the way, whilst the replay showed Hamilton nearly going into the wall at the chicane, but narrowly saving it.

Further back, Albon remained in the pits after setting an initial lap. The Williams driver was in the bottom five with under eight minutes to go, but his car had suffered a slow pit stop, resulting in the team wheeling him back into the garage.

Final five minutes

The final five minutes of Q2 saw Tsunoda, Stroll, Sargeant, Albon and Gasly at risk.

Having come into the pits after their initial runs, the drivers once again headed back out on track. A replay showed that Russell very nearly lost it at Turn 4, with him radioing “Holy moly!”.

The Mercedes driver was in P1 but as everyone else began completing more flying laps, he came into the pits along with his teammate. However, this was for a pit stop to put on fresh rubber before heading out again.

Ferrari radioed to Leclerc that rain is expected at the chequered flag meanwhile the two RB drivers went P2 and P5 with Tsunoda ahead of his teammate. Leclerc could only go ninth fastest, but Sainz was at risk in the bottom five.

Verstappen went fifth fastest, but is under investigation for failing to follow the Race Director’s instructions. He was then bumped down to sixth as Mercedes went 1-2 with both drivers breaking into the 1m 11 seconds.

Out of Q2

With drivers such as Albon improving to get into the top 10, the second Qualifying session saw a shocker for Ferrari.

Both Leclerc and Sainz were out so the bottom five in Q2 were:

11 – Charles Leclerc

12 – Carlos Sainz

13 – Logan Sargeant

14 – Kevin Magnussen

15 – Pierre Gasly

This marked the first time since Belgium 2021 that both Ferrari drivers failed to make it through to Q3.

Q3

The McLaren drivers were the first cars out on track along with Verstappen. All drivers were on slick tyres, but Mercedes seemed to be hanging back in the pits, which if rain was to come, that wasn’t necessarily the smartest move.

Verstappen set the fastest time with a 1:12.358 initially, ahead of the two McLarens. Alonso then split the papaya cars with Stroll slotting in just behind.

Russell’s first flying lap of the session did see some purple sectors. The British driver went faster than Verstappen by three and a half tenths, setting a time of 1m 12 seconds exactly. Hamilton was 0.280 seconds slower than his teammate, but Russell did get a tow from Albon.

After the first stint of Q3, the drivers came into the pits before heading out again. The first to head back out was Piastri and he achieved a lap time quick enough for only P2. He was, however, bumped down to P3 after Norris’ lap.

As the clock counted down, drivers started going faster once again. Ricciardo set personal bests whilst Alonso set a purple sector one, but that was first taken by Verstappen. Ricciardo went onto the second row, just ahead of Alonso, but these positions did change as the clock reached the end.

Hamilton’s final lap wasn’t proving to show the pace that he has previously shown in Qualifying, putting him only seventh fastest. For the first time in his career, Hamilton is outside the top five in Montreal. Meanwhile, his teammate took pole position.

Russell’s elation was clear as he set a target for the race win on Sunday following his pole position.

Top 10 in Qualifying

1 – George Russell

2 – Max Verstappen

3 – Lando Norris

4 – Oscar Piastri

5 – Daniel Ricciardo

6 – Fernando Alonso

7 – Lewis Hamilton

8 – Yuki Tsunoda

9 – Lance Stroll

10 – Alex Albon

Headline Image: GettyImages

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