Ferrari sustains Friday’s dominance, anticipates taking its first flag of the year today in Quebec.
MONTREAL, Canada—June 8th—Sebastian Vettel was nothing if not consistent. He received the best time in Friday’s practice and had the quickest pace early on Saturday, clocking 1:10:240. That was good enough for the Ferrari driver to beat Lewis Hamilton by two-tenths of a second to win the pole in today’s Canadian Grand Prix.
The race will be run at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Charles Leclerc took third in the second Ferrari.
For Vettel, it was his first pole since last season when he achieved that feat at his home Grand Prix last July. “You know, the feeling in the car when it just keeps coming, and you feel the grip, and you just go for it,” Vettel replied afterward.
“It was nice. Very happy for the team after 17 races and, for the team, it was really satisfying,” Vettel said.
Vettel set the fastest time in the opening session, while Hamilton did the same in the following period. But when it seemed like Hamilton would take his seventh pole, Vettel had enough speed to overtake Hamilton.
The disappointment of the day was the home team from Racing Point. Home-hero Lance Stroll and his Mexican teammate, Sergio Perez, were eliminated in the first session. Kimi Raikkonen in his Alfa Romeo also left early in qualifying.
Saturday’s qualifying had one red flag incident, which occurred near the conclusion of the second session. The American Haas F1 team’s Kevin Magnussen slightly struck the famous last corner, “The Wall of Champions” (as Max Verstappen had done the day before), and spun into the outside pit wall, scattering debris all over the track.
Right behind them were Magnussen’s teammate Romain Grosjean and Verstappen, both of whom had their lap times ruined, denied in advancing to the final round. Although Magnussen advanced to the final round, the Dane’s car was damaged beyond a quick repair. He did not participate in the final session and will start the race from tenth.
Daniel Ricciardo gave Renault their best qualifying finish in 2016 (since the team took over Lotus) by taking fourth, while Pierre Gasly–the only surviving Red Bull–finished fifth.
Valtteri Bottas, who would normally have a second row start at the very least, had a disappointing qualifying session. He spun his Mercedes early in the first few minutes of the concluding period and ended up sixth.
Nico Hulkenberg gave Renault their first top ten finish for both cars by taking seventh, which was his best qualifying of the season. Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. also gave McLaren a top-ten finish, finishing eighth and ninth, respectively.
Vettel hopes to use the same tires more because of the heat on the circuit, which will increase today. “I think today (Saturday) the car was a lot better, and for the soft tires and the hard tires in the race, we managed to go through the medium tire,” Vettel said. “A good day and the car was good, and we can carry that into the race. The Mercedes will be tough, but it will be good.”
