Flat Out in Montreal: Setting the Grid for the Canadian Sprint
As the evening fell over the streets of Montreal, 22 cars readied themselves for the Sprint Shootout of their life. A shootout where one millisecond could be the difference between Pole and last. Kimi Antonelli dominated Free Practice 1, but everybody had the same question: Could the 19-year-old Italian convert his morning dominance into a Sprint Pole?
Unfortunate news came from the Williams garage with the confirmation that Alex Albon would not be taking part in Sprint Qualifying as a result of his shunt in FP1. Doubts were also creeping that Liam Lawson would make it out of his VCARB garage after his power steering failure in this morning's session. And news came shortly after that he wouldn’t be.
Sprint Qualifying 1
As soon as the clock struck 16:30, the pit lane was filled with the roars of F1 engines as the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton roared out onto the circuit to lead the first part of qualifying on the medium tyre. 11 minutes loomed ahead to secure a drive in SQ2, but only 16 of the 20 participating drivers would make it through. Hamilton set the first time of the session with a 1:15.459, but was quickly brought down by Verstappen, who managed a 1:14.476.
5 minutes remained on the clock as Kimi Antonelli went fastest with a 1:14.010, but then Hamilton came in clutch to bring the times into the high 1m13s. Verstappen didn’t seem to have the pace to compete with the Silver Arrows, as Gasly caught the attention of Race Control for impeding.
With 2 minutes to go, Hamilton led out of Antonelli and Verstappen. The red flag was waved, however, as he took a trip into the wall at Turn 3 after a lock-up. To everybody’s relief, he climbed out of his Aston Martin unscathed.
The clock on SQ1 resumed with 1 minute and 46 seconds left of this part of the session, with the drivers scrambling to get a final banker lap onto the board. At 16:56 local time, the news flashed up that the session would resume at 16:59. Carlos Sainz immediately peeled out of his garage to be the first back out on track. The clock began to tick again as all the cars peeled out of the pit lane, but would anybody make it to the line in time to start a timed lap? Sainz, Stroll, and Hamilton made it across the line to start that lap, but everybody else missed it.
Perez, Stroll, Gasly and Bottas all fell victim to the SQ1 elimination zone, joined by Albon and Lawson, who didn’t make it out of their respective garages.
Sprint Qualifying 2
At 17:08, the pit lane went green for the remaining 16 cars to battle for a place in SQ3. Russell led the pack to battle on fresh medium tyres, with the majority of drivers choosing to stay in the garage to get a clear run to the track. As the first times came onto the board, it was Norris who topped it with an initial 1:13.459, but Hamilton quickly pushed him into second, going 3 tenths faster than him. Russell quickly killed Hamilton’s joy by going a further 8 tenths faster than the Ferrari.
With 4 minutes to go, Verstappen still hadn’t set a lap time, and Sainz made it out of his garage to defend his spot in qualifying. Verstappen had his lap deleted, but he quickly departed on another flying lap. As the clock entered the final minute, all drivers went on their last flying lap to earn their spot in SQ3. Who escaped the drop zone?
Unfortunately, Hulkenberg, Colpapinto, Ocon, Bearman, and Alonso couldn’t escape the clutches of elimination, and they found their Sprint Qualifying over. Verstappen barely scraped through in P9 after a deleted lap, and car issues.
Sprint Qualifying 3
The clock started counting down for the final 8 minutes of Sprint Qualifying, and Hamilton once again lead the remaining 10 cars out of the pit lane on the mandated soft tyres. Hamilton struggled to find grip on his first flying lap, and Carlos deciding to take the run off area. Lewis took off on his second flying lap to achieve a 1:13.411, and Hadjar taking second, and Verstappen taking Isack’s spot a few second later. The times are climbing all over, with Lindblad pulling off 6th.
As everyone crossed the line for the last time, it was Russell that beat the rest, his Mercedes teammate claiming second and current World Champion Lando Norris 3rd. Will Russell be able to convert his pole into a win?
