Wet weather was no match for Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, who powered through the tricky conditions at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve to earn the pole position for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Verstappen laid down a best time of 1:25.858 seconds early in Q3 before the red flag waved due to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri crashing in turn seven. The incident promptly ended the session.
It was Verstappen’s third pole in a row, and his fifth overall on the season.
“We made the right calls at the right time today,” Verstappen said. “It was very important to get the communication right with the team, to really keep on top of things as the weather was changing by the minute, we were clear with what we wanted to do. It was good that I could really push the car, despite the conditions on track.
“I like this track and in the wet it’s even more challenging. It’s difficult to say what’s going to happen tomorrow, I felt quite good on the long runs this morning so hopefully we will have good pace. It’s a long race, a lot of things can happen so we just need to be on top of things.”
In a stunning turn of events, Haas F-1’s Nico Hulkenberg stole the outside of row one amidst the chaotic conditions, his third career front row start.
Behind the front two, Fernando Alonso wheeled his Aston Martin to third, followed by the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Esteban Ocon qualified his Alpine Renault in sixth, followed by McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Piastri laid down a lap good enough for ninth prior to his shunt off-course in the latter stages of Q3.
Rounding out the top 10 was Alexander Albon.
The session proved to be difficult for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who missed Q3 due to the unrelenting track conditions. They’ll start 11th and 12th on Sunday.