Mercedes driver George Russell will start from the top of the grid for the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on Sunday.
In a rare occurrence, the Briton posted exactly the same time (1’12”), to the nearest thousandth of a second, as Dutchman Max Verstappen during Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session. But as he was the first to do so, the Red Bull driver will have to settle for second place.
The leader in the drivers’ championship, the latter narrowly missed out on what would have been his eighth leading position at the start in nine races this season.
The leading trio will be completed by Lando Norris at the wheel of his McLaren, who himself took only 21 thousandths of a second more than the other two to complete his lap of the 4.4 km circuit on Notre-Dame Island.
A complicated weekend
All three drivers spoke of the difficulty of dealing with changing weather and track conditions, pitfalls of a circuit where the slightest mistake can be very costly and where the new surface seems to accelerate tire wear.
The only other time George Russell has started from the top of a Formula 1 race was almost two years ago at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Currently seventh in the championship with no better than two fifth-place finishes in eight races, the Briton was unsure on Saturday what made the difference. The Mercedes have been performing better on track since they were given further upgrades in Monaco two weeks ago. “It took us a while to get back into the fight. We’ll see in the next races if that continues.”
His teammate and compatriot Lewis Hamilton was less successful on Saturday, with only the seventh fastest time . Team principal Toto Wolff admitted after qualifying that he was still not sure why.
Despite his heartbreaking second place, Max Verstappen was rather satisfied. “The whole weekend was complicated for us. We finally found a good balance. The race should be interesting.”
Qualifying held other surprises that could herald an action-packed and overtaking start to the race, especially if rain were to set in. Typically further back on the grid, RB drivers Daniel Ricciardo (5th ) and Yuki Tsunoda (8th ) will start in good positions. Local hero Lance Stroll from Montreal will be ninth, three places behind his Aston Marin teammate Fernando Alonso (6th ) .
Always appreciated by the Montreal crowd, the two Ferrari drivers were less fortunate. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz could do no better than 11th and 12th place . Max Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull, Carlos Perez, was even more disappointed with his surprising 16th place .
“We just weren’t fast enough and honestly I don’t have an explanation right now,” Leclerc said, looking down. “It’s really weird.”
Less overwhelming domination
The teams were nevertheless a little luckier with the weather on Saturday than the day before. Under a sky where grey clouds alternated with rays of sunshine and showers, the third and final free practice session and qualifying took place on a largely dry track. The first laps on Friday had been the scene of heavy rain and even hail.
With 16 races to go, including Sunday’s in Montreal, the drivers’ championship is led by reigning champion Max Verstappen, who already has five wins and a second place in just eight Grands Prix this season. A win in Montreal would be his third in a row at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, something only Britain’s Lewis Hamilton and Germany’s Michael Schumacher have achieved since 1978.
That puts Verstappen in prime position to clinch a fourth consecutive championship title. Red Bull’s dominance is less overwhelming than last year, however, with the tighter field having seen Briton Lando Norris win the Miami Grand Prix last month in his McLaren, and Monaco’s Charles Leclerc do the same two weeks ago in his Ferrari in the principality.
Red Bulls are said to perform best when they can stay glued to the track, that is, when the circuits are not too bumpy and do not require you to climb the kerbs in the corners. The track on Île Notre-Dame belonged to this category until it was recently completely resurfaced, in addition to being slightly lowered under the Pont de la Concorde for safety reasons, and having its drainage improved. Its succession of fast straights, where you can reach speeds of almost 350 km/h, and tight turns still require drivers not to be afraid to attack the red and white cement kerbs.
A championship race that is still young
Max Verstappen thus leads the drivers’ championship standings with 169 points, 31 ahead of Charles Leclerc with 138, 56 points ahead of Lando Norris (113) and 61 points ahead of the other Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz (108). The local driver, Lance Stroll, comes further behind in his Aston Martin with 11 points, which gives him 11th place .
The title race, which this season includes a total of 24 Grands Prix and which will end in December, is therefore still young, with a first place in a race earning 25 points, compared to 18 for a second place, 15 for 3rd place and so on, decreasing to just one small point for tenth place out of 20 drivers in the running.
The starting signal for the 70-lap race, covering a total of just over 305 kilometres, will be given on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit on Sunday a few minutes after 2 p.m. Like last year, when the event welcomed a total of 345,000 spectators over three days, the Grand Prix is a sold-out event.
