Max Verstappen on pole ahead of Fernando Alonso in Canada

On a soggy but drying track as the venturi tunnels of the single-seaters sucked up the huge puddles on the track, Max Verstappen has signed his second pole position of the season in Canada. It's a small event since the pilot Red Bull had not reached the top position since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix two months ago. He also took the opportunity to carry out an excellent operation in the championship, with the error of Sergio Perez in Q2 (see below) and the penalty of Charles Leclerc, which will see them both starting from behind. But contrary to appearances, the hero of the day is not Dutch but Spanish. 

Competitive since the start of the weekend, Fernando Alonso has indeed achieved the feat of getting to the front row, alongside Max Verstappen. The Spaniard was entitled to a well-deserved cheer from the spectators of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit, who stood up as one man as he passed the line of theAlpine No. 14. The Bull of Asturias has in fact outstripped his compatriot Carlos Sainz. It is the first time since his pole position at the 2012 German Grand Prix that Alonso has qualified on the front row.

For his part, Carlos Sainz was on a big lap on his last attempt, including the absolute record in sector 1. But the Madrilenian undoubtedly attacked the last chicane a little hard and had all the difficulty in the world to resume the gas, which probably cost him the front row finishing almost 8 tenths behind Max Verstappen. Also note the very nice session of Lewis Hamilton, qualified ahead of his teammate in 4th place. 

Sergio Perez at fault and eliminated in Q2

But if there was a medal for bravery, it would surely go to George Russell. While he was in 5th place after the first set of tires, just ahead of Hamilton, the young man was the first and one of the only ones to try to switch to the soft tires. There was an idea, since only turn 1 and the last chicane were still generously wet. In two laps, he did not manage to heat his tires sufficiently and made a mistake in T1. He will start 8th, but will have at least tried everything to get pole. The feeling, however, came from Haas, with 5th place in Kevin Magnussen and the 6th of Mick Schumacher. The Dane also achieved this on Soft tires and was the only one to achieve his best time on dry tires. Esteban Ocon signed the 7th fastest time, far from his teammate Alonso.

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The first surprise of the evening came from Sergio Perez. The Mexican was in fact eliminated in Q2 after losing the car and hitting a techpro. The Red Bull driver tried to engage reverse but never managed to get going again, leading to a red flag nine minutes from the end of the session. Note that the incident occurred when Perez had just put on Intermediate tires, at a time when the track was starting to improve. Lando Norris complained of a problem with his power unit and stayed a little too long in the pit lane at the end of Q2, which prevented him from improving (14th).

In the department of disappointments, Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) had a complicated session. The Norman, however, was calling for rain, hoping that it would level out the performance of the cars. But the Frenchman, second in free practice 3, was apparently disrupted by a brake problem, which undoubtedly prevented him from progressing to Q2. The AlphaTauri driver finished in 16th position, and will start far away, just in front of the two Aston Martin de Sebastian Vettel et Lance stroll. The two Canadian drivers were eliminated from Q1 since Nicholas latifi only set the 19th fastest time of the session, ahead of a Yuki tsunoda who was content to qualify in the 107%, he who will start at the back of the grid after an engine change. Charles Leclerc will start in 19th position, after refueling the engine elements. The Grand Prix kicks off on Sunday, at 20 p.m. French time.

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