Coming to Canada, my expectations weren't too high in terms of Ferrari's performance, as Mercedes had dominated all first six rounds of the season. And in addition to that, Mercedes had brought a power unit upgrade to Montreal, which was planned to make the Silver Arrows even more competitive and dominant.
In the first session the holder of the top spot changed continually. After the first flyers Leclerc was the fastest man on track, with Verstappen second, Hamilton third and Bottas fourth. After a cool-down lap Sebastian made a second run, jumping second in the standings, only a tenth off his teammate's pace. But like expected, there was more to come from the Mercedes drivers. Bottas gave his answer and went fastest, with teammate Hamilton right behind. Only a moment later the red-suited drivers bounced back, challenging the Silver Arrows for real. Sebastian clocked the fastest lap time, with teammate Leclerc only 0.014s down on the German! The top two teams' pace seemed surprisingly evenly matched, as Bottas in third was also 0.029s off Sebastian only. Hamilton in fourth was three tenths off the pace. Alfa Romeo Racing, which had had a competitive start to the season, was still struggling, like in Monaco two weeks ago. Kimi managed to make it 10th in the standings at the end of the session, but unfortunately many others improved their lap times as well. Ironically, it was Kimi's teammate Giovinazzi, who managed to jump 15th at the end, knocking Kimi out of Q2 for the first time this season. This was the very first time, that the Italian managed to out-qualify the Iceman. Out of the second session were also the Racing Point duo of Perez and Stroll and the Williams duo of Russell and Kubica.
As the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit is known to be extremely demanding on tyres, the top teams wanted to avoid using the soft tyres in the race. That's why both Mercedes and Ferrari sent their drivers out on the medium compound. The medium rubber proved extremely competitive, as Sebastian went fastest, edging Hamilton by 0.027s only. Red Bull decided to send Verstappen out on the yellow-walled mediums as well, but the Dutchman's pace left a little to hope for. He was soon dropped from P4 down to P6, and the track conditions kept improving... Leclerc, whose first run had been everything but flawless, now went fastest on his second attempt. But the young Monegasque was robbed of the top spot by his teammate only a short moment later. Verstappen's teammate Gasly had opted for the soft compound, and the Frenchman went second fastest. As there were seven minutes remaining in the clock, Verstappen was in modest P11, which meant trouble for the Dutchman. He had been unable to improve his lap time due to traffic and loss of grip. He had no choice but to pit for a fresh set of soft tyres. With only five minutes to go, Hamilton set the benchmark with a tiny 0.085-second gap to teammate Bottas. However, the end of Q2 turned out dramatic. Magnussen lost control of his Haas on his final time-lap, which threw the Dane into the Wall of Champions! Red flags were out, which meant bad news for many drivers, who were still on their time-lap. The biggest casualty was definitely Verstappen, who was out of the last segment! Also Magnussen's teammate Grosjean got eliminated because of the crash. Ironically, Magnussen would have made it into Q3, had he not crashed out!
The start of Q3 was delayed due to Magnussen's crash, as the marshals had it difficult to get the Haas transferred out of the way. This time the most competitive midfield teams were Renault and McLaren, which got their both cars into the last session. The battle for pole was going to be hair-raising, as the gap between Mercedes and Ferrari seemed absolutely tenuous. Hamilton laid his hands on provisional pole, by 0.188s to Sebastian. Leclerc was third after his first flyer. Bottas, on the other hand, had a true moment of scare on his first flyer, as the Finn spun in Turn 2 in high speed! Miraculously he managed to avoid hitting anything, but now it was all down to the very last attempt. At the end of the session Hamilton was hungry to improve his lap time, which the Briton also did. However, Sebastian had an absolutely magical last sector, which made him claim pole by a two-tenth gap to Hamilton! It was a truly phenomenal effort from Sebastian, who managed to repeat his last year's success in Montreal. Hamilton split the red-suited drivers, as Leclerc qualified third. The most positive surprise of the qualifying was Renault's Ricciardo, who made it 4th on the grid! Gasly qualified fifth, and Mercedes ace Bottas was left 6th after his mistake-filled last run, which is by far the worst grid slot for the Finn this season. Hulkenberg made it an impressive day for Renault by qualifying 7th. The McLaren duo of Norris and Sainz was left 8th and 9th (and Magnussen 10th).
Due to his crash, Magnussen will start to the race from the pit lane. Sainz has been given a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Toro Rosso's Albon. These penalties benefit Verstappen, who will start to the race from P9. Canada has offered colorful racing in the previous years, so I'm looking forward to an action-packed race. Will Sebastian be able to hold on to his lead at the start? I certainly hope so! How aggressive will Verstappen be? He will certainly benefit from the soft tyres at the beginning of the race. The team, which does better job with tyre management, has the key to victory today. And I really hope, that it will be the Red Team! Success would be such a welcomed change after the problem-filled first third of the season!
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