The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), leader of the Formula 1 World Championship, achieved pole position on Saturday of the Canadian Grand Prix after a fierce battle in the rain with veteran Fernando Alonso (Alpine).
The also Spanish Carlos Sainz Jr. (Ferrari) was third in the classification and the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) will have to start on Sunday from 13th place after suffering an accident at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal.
Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), third in the World Championship standings, will start from the bottom of the grid in the ninth race of 22 on the calendar, penalized for an engine change that exceeds the permitted limit.
Fernando Alonso gets back into the fight for a Grand Prix
Without the threat in principle of Leclerc, Verstappen will have as his first rival the Spanish Fernando Alonso, who at 40 years old offered a driving exhibition on the wet Montreal track.
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In a frenetic finale, Verstappen signed the best lap in 1 minute 21.299 seconds, beating the two-time world champion by just seven tenths of a second.
On the second starting line will be Sainz Jr and the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), seven times world champion, and on the third the Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas-Ferrari) and the German Mick Schumacher (Haas-Ferrari).
Alonso, Formula 1 champion in 2005 and 2006 with Renault, assured that he will make things difficult for Verstappen, current Formula 1 champion, on Sunday. “I will attack Max from the first corner,” warned the Spaniard.
The rain that fell on Saturday on the circuit, located on an artificial island on the Saint Lawrence River, caused several incidents in this return of Formula 1 to Canada after two years of cancellations due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The main affected was ‘Checo’ Pérez, who crashed his RedBull car into the wall, causing a long interruption in the second part of qualifying. Pérez, second in the World Cup, thus suffered a severe blow to his aspirations of cutting ground in the classification to his teammate Verstappen.
The panorama of the fight for the title
Verstappen, who leads Pérez by 21 points and Leclerc by 34, has a golden opportunity to distance himself even further if he takes advantage of the fifteenth ‘pole’ of his career and second this season. The Dutchman aspires to achieve his twenty-sixth victory in Formula 1 at just 24 years old.
Leclerc participated in the first part of the qualifying session to ensure a better time than Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), also penalized for an engine change above the limit.
After a dominant start to the season, Leclerc wasted the last four pole positions due to mechanical problems and strategic errors and his last victory dates back to April 10 in Australia.
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Ferrari’s hopes of making a comeback in Montreal were dashed first with a 10-place grid penalty received on Friday for a change in engine control electronics.
Given the poor prospects, Ferrari decided to take the opportunity to make a necessary fourth change to the internal combustion engine, which sent Leclerc directly to the back of the grid.
“I think it was the best decision,” Leclerc considered, aware that the alternative was to be penalized in one of the next races. The Monegasque wants to take advantage of the conditions of the circuit, one of the most conducive to overtaking, to contain the damage against Verstappen, who is in full acceleration towards his second consecutive title.
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with AFP
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