The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), leader of the Formula 1 World Championship, achieved pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix this Saturday, followed by the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Carlos Sainz Jr. (Ferrari).
Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) will start from 13th place after colliding with his car in the second part of qualifying, marked by rain at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), third in the championship, will start from the bottom of the grid, penalized for an engine change that exceeds the permitted limit.
Without Leclerc’s threat in principle, Verstappen will first have to keep an eye on two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who at 40 put on a driving display on the wet Montreal track.
Alonso, Formula 1 champion in 2007 and 2008, advanced that it will make things difficult for the defending champion.
– The rain, protagonist –
The rain that fell on this circuit, located on an island in the Saint Lawrence River, on Saturday caused several incidents in the 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 Red Bull car into the wall causing a long interruption in the second part of qualifying.
Pérez, second in the World Championship after his teammate Verstappen, will start on Sunday from 13th place on the race grid, ninth of the 22 on the calendar.
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 position of his career and the second this season.
The Dutchman aspires to achieve his twenty-sixth victory in Formula 1 at just 24 years old.
