Verstappen On Pole, Hülkenberg Takes Shock Front-Row Spot

Max Verstappen took pole position once again in Canada in an action-packed qualifying session that saw the conditions go from wet to dry, meaning the grid will be mixed up tomorrow giving us potential for an exciting race.

Nico Hülkenberg took all the headlines to put his Haas on the front row with an incredible effort and will start ahead of Fernando Alonso, who once again put in an impressive lap as Aston Martin Armaco Cognizant F1 Team debut their new upgrades.

Q1 – AlphaTauri Pair Knocked Out, Gasly Disappoints

As soon as the session got going Zhou Guanyu brought out the red flag after stopping due to a drive issue, that saw him unable to get out of first gear. The Chinese driver got the car going again after he stopped, and managed to get back to the Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake garage.

As the track kept getting quicker, the drivers kept improving their times with Fernando Alonso and Verstappen trading the fastest laps. Zhou failed to recover from his issue and was knocked out with the slowest time, followed by Logan Sargeant.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri duo of Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda were unable to get out of the drop zone and will start eighteenth and sixteenth. The other driver knocked out was Pierre Gasly, which is a massive disappointment for BWT Alpine F1 Team.

Q2 – Albon Goes Fastest, Pérez and Leclerc Out

The running in Q2 started on intermediate tyres, with Verstappen once again setting the pace, but as the track got dryer, drivers started to take gambles onto soft tyres.

Alex Albon was the first driver to take the gamble, and it was a masterstroke with the Williams Racing driver going fastest overall. Some drivers didn’t time their soft tyre runs as well as Albon did and found themselves missing out. Valtteri Bottas was the slowest in the session and will start in fifteenth, alongside Kevin Magnussen in fourteenth.

Lance Stroll was unable to make Q3 after lacking pace on his final lap, leaving the home fans quite disappointed. Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez failed to get onto the soft tyres at the right time and found themselves both with shock exits in Q2, meaning they will start eleventh and twelfth.

Q3 – Verstappen, Hülkenberg Impresses

As the conditions remained influential, Verstappen led a group of cars out of the pit lane at the start of Q3. All drivers switched back to intermediate tires after a short stint with slicks, aiming to set a competitive lap time.

Verstappen took the initiative and set a time of 1:27.059s, which he then improved to 1:25.858s. Alonso secured second place as the rain intensified on the track, adding additional pressure on the 10 drivers to perform immediately.

Albon didn’t put a time in Q3 after going quickest in Q2, but the Williams driver will be extremely pleased with where he is starting in tomorrow’s race. Oscar Piastri brought out a red flag during the session and only put in one time meaning he will start ninth on the grid ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. for Scuderia Ferrari.

Lando Norris put in an impressive lap for seventh, just under a tenth slower than Esteban Ocon, who will start sixth. The Mercedes pair did well and managed to secure fourth and fifth, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell.

Alonso bagged himself another top-three start, but it was Hülkenberg who took the headlines securing a front-row start for Haas F1 Team, behind Verstappen.