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THE DAY ON
TRACK
* The rain was the main story today, both in free practice and in
qualifying.
* FP3 was held in the rain, which intensified towards the end of the
session. The Ferrari drivers were the only ones to use Intermediates right
from the start, rather than the Full Wets chosen by all the other teams for
their first run out of the pits. The intermediates then gained in popularity
after the first quarter of an hour, with Aston Martin the first team to make
the switch.
* After about half an hour, the session was stopped when Carlos Sainz
crashed at the first corner and it resumed at 13.07, once the run-off area
had been cleared and the crash barriers repaired.
* The track was wet for the start of qualifying, even though it was hardly
raining. The session was stopped almost immediately after Guanyu Zhou had to
park his Alfa Romeo at the side of the track with a technical problem. At
that point, only three drivers – his team-mate Valtteri Bottas and both
Williams drivers – had set a time on the Intermediate tyres.
* The track began to dry out but in Q1 no drivers risked using slicks. The
Intermediates worked well even as the track continued to get dryer, at least
on the racing line, which meant several drivers were able to keep going for
longer than the predicted crossover time for slicks.
* In Q2, Williams gambled by sending Alex Albon out on dry weather tyres
right from his very first run and it paid off. The Thai-British driver
struggled a bit compared to those on Intermediates for his first two laps,
but then he found himself on the best suited tyres when the track itself was
at its best – namely running the Softs at the right temperature and he thus
managed to set the fastest time.
* All the other drivers did a first flying lap on Intermediates before
switching to Softs, but by then, the rain was gaining in intensity and
Albon’s time remained out of reach. Failing to make the cut out of this part
of qualifying were several top team drivers, including Leclerc, Perez and
Stroll.
* The third session really came down to just one run at the start, with all
the drivers on Intermediates. Once again, Max Verstappen was quickest, thus
securing his 25th career pole position.
* The only driver who ever looked like challenging the Dutchman was Fernando
Alonso, but a red flag brought out when Oscar Piastri crashed, prevented the
Spaniard from completing his second flying lap by just a few seconds and the
Aston Martin driver thus had to settle for third place.
* The surprise of the day came from Nico Hulkenberg, who was second fastest.
This feat means that, for the very first time, the Haas team will see one of
its cars start a Grand Prix from the front row.
* Jean Alesi presented Max Verstappen with the Pirelli Pole Position Award.
The Frenchman who raced in Formula 1 from 1989 to 2001, took his only Grand
Prix win here in Montreal on his birthday (11 June) in 1995, at the wheel of
a Ferrari. |
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MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“Yesterday’s weather forecast predicted rain for today and it proved to be
accurate. It meant we could see both the Intermediate and the new Full Wet
tyres in action, after we had got a taste of the latter towards the end of
the Monaco Grand Prix. As for the Intermediates, we saw that their operating
window is still very wide, given the competitive times set with them in Q1
when the track was practically dry. The Full Wet, which in this new
specification does not require preheating, worked as expected without any
evidence of temperature management issues right from the start of their use.
“Dry track conditions are expected tomorrow, but clearly all the rain that
has fallen so far has effectively led to a degree of reset in terms of the
track surface conditions. As for strategy, this could make a two stop race
look even more competitive, starting with the Mediums and then switching to
Softs for the next two stints. A one stop, starting on Hard and switching to
Medium, could be the choice for those starting from the second half of the
grid, as it would allow them to have greater flexibility to deal with any
eventualities, especially on this track where the Safety Car has often been
called on to do plenty of laps.” |
