Last year’s poles sitter and race winner Max Verstappen has claimed his 25th Formula One pole position in today’s qualifying at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ahead of surprise front row starter Nico Hulkenberg, while teammate Sergio Perez failed to make it out of Q2 after missing the window to get a lap in on slick tyres before the rain resumed. Continuing the form we have come to expect, the Dutchman is on course to equal Aryton Senna’s career wins should he go on to achieve victory in tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
After saying yesterday that the circuit didn’t suit their package, the twice world champion excelled in the wet conditions after making some changes to the car:
“Yesterday maybe wasn’t fantastic so we made a few changes to the car of course today was completely wet you know so it’s a little different but I do think that the car improved in general to drive and yeah in the wet you just have to stay on top of all the conditions and it was super slippery out there in some places but we just made all the right calls at the right time for the track to do the lap times and of course very happy to be on pole here.”
With Oscar Piastri’s McLaren hitting the wall at Turn 7 bringing out the red flags, Verstappen’s early time in Q3 was enough to stick him on pole before the return of heavy rain saw fit to end the hopes of any driver improving their lap times once the session resumed following the recovery of Piastri’s car.
The Red Bull driver proclaimed in Parc Ferme that he liked the challenge of driving in such conditions we saw in Montreal today:
“I like driving in the wet. I mean, I come from Holland you know, so we are used to driving in the wet.”
Verstappen concluded his Parc Ferme interview with some understatement on the quality of his RB19 when asked about wether he saw his dominant form continuing with another win:
“Let’s see. Maybe it’s dry tomorrow and then again it can be a bit different but normally we have a good race car.”
By now it is certainly clear that the RB19 is more than just a “good race car” and one expects that during the race it will be hard to shift the Dutch driver from his position at the front.
