Red Bull driver Max Verstappen set the fastest time in a rainy qualifying session at the Canadian Grand Prix on the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal on Saturday. He will start Sunday from P1 in a grid which – an extremely rare occurrence in Formula 1 – will see cars from eight different teams in the top ten.

For the Dutchman and leader in the drivers’ standings, it’s the fifth top spot in the eighth time since the start of the season. But he will be joined by the Haas rider, German Nico Hulkenberg, who hasn’t managed to do better than 7 so far^e room for departure.

Then come the regulars from the front of the peloton, i.e. in turn the Aston Martin driver, the Spaniard Fernando Alonso, and the two Mercedes drivers, the British Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Then follow drivers from Alpine (Estaban Ocon), McLaren (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri), Ferrari (Carlos Sainz) and even Williams (Alexander Albon) in tenth place.

This unusual starting order is a result of the unpredictable weather that forced the teams and their drivers to constantly adapt to changing conditions when the rain stopped and allowed the track to dry before they could resume. more beautiful.

“We just made the right decisions at the right time when it came to the tires,” said Max Verstappen modestly, who outrageously dominated the race for the drivers’ title this year. “I like to drive on a wet track,” he added.

Nico Hulkenberg, a Formula 1 veteran with 191 grands prix under his belt, didn’t hide his delight, but he also had no illusions about his chances of outperforming drivers from the fastest teams for a long time. “It was crazy. It was fun. It’s also unexpected. […] It’s nice to be at the forefront. We’ll see how long that lasts. »

Stroll, Perez, Leclerc…

With many of Saturday’s favorites finding it harder to get through in the rain and with them set to start from a wide margin early in the race, Sunday’s race could be an opportunity to pick up some valuable race points. in the championship, observed Fernando Alonso. But while the technical innovations brought by his Montreal team appear to be delivering good results, he doesn’t yet believe he can really threaten Max Verstappen. “We’ve gotten closer to the Red Bulls, but we’re not at their level yet. »

His Austin Martin teammate, Montreal’s Lance Stroll, was among those less fortunate on Saturday with 13th place. This also applies to the other Red Bull driver, Mexican Sergio Perez (11^e) and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc (11^e).

The latter was annoyed that his team was slow to react to changing conditions during qualifying. “We make life so much harder for ourselves. »

Lance Stroll was more philosophical. “We just had the wrong tires at the wrong time. »

The third and final free practice session also took place in the rain early on Saturday afternoon. It was a great opportunity to catch up on lost time from the previous day and fine-tune the settings for qualifying later in the day and Sunday’s race, which was forecast not to take place in the rain.

The teams had bad luck on their first laps of the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit on the Île Notre-Dame on Friday. No sooner had the first free practice session started than a car breakdown and subsequent problems with the circuit’s surveillance camera system brought everything to a standstill. The second training, which was extended by half an hour for the occasion, was more productive but was again marked by all kinds of incidents, until the first raindrops turned into a deluge at the end of the session.

Overwhelming Red Bull dominance

The 4.4 km Gilles-Villeneuve circuit is characterized by the succession of straight lines with high speed and hard braking to negotiate tight corners where you have to dare to attack the curbs but avoid low walls and lawns at the edge of the route must be careful closely. It is not uncommon for track incidents and bad weather to disrupt the course of the race so much that 80% of previous editions to date have required the car to be taken out onto the track at least once. Safety, slow down and regroup train.

Picking up where it left off last year, Red Bull has stunned the competition since the start of the season with seven wins in seven races, five of which were won by reigning world champion Max Verstappen.

The battle behind the Red Bulls has been interesting so far this year, with at least three teams vying for the title of Best of the Rest.

Second in the Constructors’ Championship and a major rival to Red Bull, the Mercedes team got off to a slow start but have been doing significantly better for some time. As crowd favourites, the Ferraris have so far failed to do better than fourth place behind the Aston Martins.

Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll’s team, which finished seventh out of ten teams last year, is the big surprise at the start of the season. His 41-year-old new signing and double world champion Fernando Alonso even occupies third place in the drivers’ standings behind the two Red Bull men thanks to five podium finishes in seven races. Lance Stroll was less successful and is currently in eighth place.

The starting signal for the race over just over 305 km and 70 laps must be given on Sunday at 2 p.m.

To see in the video