Incredible! George Russell took pole position in the Canadian GP with an amazing time of 1’12″000 obtained in the first run of Q3 on a set of used soft tyres. The Englishman earned the second pole start of his career (the previous one he had obtained in Hungary in 2022) signing the performance before Max Verstappen who stopped the clocks at the same time at the thousandth. F1 relives a sensational event that had already occurred in 1997 when in Jerez in the race valid for the GP. of Europe which was supposed to win the world championship. At the time there were even three drivers who had signed a tie: Jacques Villeneuve (on pole) with Michael Schumacher and Heinz Harald Frentzen.
The news from Montreal is that Mercedes is back in vogue with the reviled W15: the Englishman played in an extraordinary way, because the public expected Lewis Hamilton to break the pole record on the island of Notre Dame. The seven-time world champion, however, is only seventh even if only 280 thousandths behind his youngest teammate. Lewis was unable to turn on the tires with the new set of softs, so time signed him like George with the used tyres.
Max Verstappen does not despair: the world champion, aware that he has a Red Bull in his hands that is no longer the uncatchable single-seater, climbed to the front row. The Dutchman’s talent played its part this time too, even if tomorrow he will have to work his ass off to keep the McLarens of Lando Norris, third at 21 thousandths, and Oscar Piastri, fourth at one tenth, at bay.
We have some doubts about Mercedes’ consistency in the race, but rest assured that Max’s challenge with the McLarens will be on the razor’s edge. Daniel Ricciardo’s fifth place performance with the Racing Bulls was excellent: the Australian, shortly after the press release from the Faenza team making the renewal of Yuki Tsunoda official, showed off his attributes and gave more than three tenths of a second to his Japanese teammate who he is eighth on the grid.
Aston Martins are growing: Fernando Alonso is sixth with the AMR24 close to the leaders, while Lance Stroll was unable to exploit the only useful train and ended up ninth ahead of Alexander Albon’s Williams, last in the Top-10.
And Ferrari? Doesn’t make it out of Q2! Sensational: Charles Leclerc, eleventh, and Carlos Sainz, twelfth, remain empty-handed. The two Cavallino drivers complained about the lack of grip and it is not clear why in the last run of the middle session the two Ferrari drivers were cleaned on the track with a set of used softs. A suicidal choice at the moment in which the passage of the round was played on the threshold of thousandths: Charles paid 32 thousandths with an SF-24 that never seemed competitive. Sainz made a mistake at the end and paid for it very heavily.
The feeling is that Ferrari was unable to extract the potential that was in the car, extinguishing the enthusiasm that had arisen after the success in Monaco. Suffice it to say that Logan Sargeant, author of a convincing qualifying with Williams, finished just eight thousandths behind the Spaniard’s red. It’s clear that there’s something that didn’t work as it should have for the Maranello team.
In 14th position there is Kevin Magnussen who got the best out of the Haas, placing himself ahead of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine who took the pleasure of putting the Alpine in Q2.
Sergio Perez for the second time in a row does not exit Q1 with Red Bull: the Mexican, fresh from his contract renewal, pays almost a second from his teammate and finishes the first trap in 16th place. Checo seemed furious at how the team sent him out late with the second set of new tyres, but Perez’s performance did not live up to expectations, so he had very little responsibility to pass on.
Valtteri Bottas is 17th with Sauber: the Finn manages to do better than a disappointing Guanyu Zhou, last, but strongly influenced by the two crashes in free practice: the Chinese was satisfied with 20th place on the grid to avoid the risk of doing further damage …
Esteban Ocon didn’t find the right balance for the Alpine and finished 18th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg who never managed to turn on the tires of his Haas so he remained 19th.
#Russell #pole #Montreal #time #Verstappen
