Canadian Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Event:  Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix (Round 7 of 20)

Date:  Saturday, June 10

Location:  Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal

Layout:  4.361-kilometer (2.710-mile), 14-turn circuit

Pole Winner:  Lewis Hamilton Mercedes (1:11.459 – new track record)

Result:  Romain Grosjean qualified 14th / Kevin Magnussen qualified 18th

●  Lasts 18 minutes, with all 20 drivers participating

●  Fastest 15 drivers advance to Q2

Grosjean:  11th quick (1:13.780), advanced to Q2

Magnussen:  18th quick (1:14.318)

Fastest Driver:  Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:12.685)

Cutoff:  15th-quick Carlos Sainz Jr. of Toro Rosso (1:14.051)

●  Lasts 15 minutes, featuring the 15 fastest drivers from Q1

●  Fastest 10 drivers advance to Q3

Grosjean:  14th quick (1:13.839)

Fastest Driver:  Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:12.496)

Cutoff:  10th-quick Nico Hulkenberg of Renault (1:13.406)

●  Lasts 12 minutes, featuring the 10 fastest drivers from Q2, all battling for the pole

Pole Winner:  Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:11.459)

Second:  Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari (1:11.789)

Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen qualified 14th and 18th, respectively, for the Canadian Grand Prix Sunday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

Grosjean set the 11th-fastest time in Q1 with a lap of 1:13.780 around the 4.361-kilometer (2.710-mile), 14-turn track. Magnussen was 18th quickest with a lap of 1:14.318. Only the top-15 drivers move on to Q2.

Magnussen’s Q1 drive was initially thwarted by traffic where a clean lap was unobtainable and, ultimately, by Pascal Wehrlein spinning his Sauber off turn one and into the wall to halt the session with less than 40 seconds remaining.

In Q2, Grosjean earned the 14th fastest time with a lap of 1:13.839. Only the top-10 drivers from Q2 move on to Q3.

Both Grosjean and Magnussen ran exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Purple ultrasoft tire throughout qualifying.

Taking the pole for the Canadian Grand Prix was Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. His fast lap of 1:11.459 set a new track qualifying record, breaking the 13-year mark of 1:12.275 set by Ralf Schumacher in 2004 with Williams. Hamilton beat Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel for the pole by .330 of a second. It was Hamilton’s 65th career Formula One pole and it tied him with the legendary Ayrton Senna for the second most poles in Formula One history. Only Michael Schumacher has more poles with 68. This was also Hamilton’s fourth pole this season, his third in a row for the Canadian Grand Prix and his sixth at Montreal, tying him with Schumacher for the most poles at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Before Grosjean, Magnussen and the rest of their Formula One counterparts participated in knockout qualifying, they had one final practice (FP3) to dial in their racecars for a quick lap around the track. The Haas F1 Team duo made the most of the hour-long session, running each of the three tire compounds made available by Pirelli. Installation laps were made on the Yellow softs followed by an eight-lap drive on Red supersofts before culminating with a seven-lap qualifying simulation on Purple ultrasofts.

With the ultrasofts being the grippiest compound in Pirelli’s lineup, it was no surprise they allowed for the fastest times. Grosjean set the 14th-quickest time with a 1:13.994 on his 17th lap. Magnussen earned his best time on his 16th lap – a 1:14.392 that put him 17th overall. Grosjean tallied 19 laps and Magnussen ran 18.

Quickest in FP3 was Vettel, whose fast lap of 1:12.572 was .292 of a second better than his Scuderia Ferrari teammate and second quickest driver Kimi Räikkönen.

“It’s not been easy. We knew we were not in Q3, but I was hoping to get a bit more magic in qualifying. Q1 went pretty well. In Q2, we just didn’t get any grip at all on the last set of tires. I did my best, managed to get a decent time, but it was nowhere near good enough to go through with a better position. We’re going to work, try to analyze everything. The positive is this is a track where you can normally overtake. It’s going to be a long race and it can be tough on the brakes. Hopefully, we can play with that and get some points tomorrow.” 

“It was very frustrating. There were a lot of things going on – mainly traffic. It’s the second weekend in a row that we don’t get laps because of traffic. I didn’t get a good feeling for the car as I didn’t really get to put a lap down. The important thing is to try and be on the same strategy as the guys around you so that you don’t do fast laps when everyone else is doing slow laps. We didn’t get to show our full potential today. We need to try to be better.”