Verstappen takes pole in Canada with the largest margin since 1984, Alonso qualifies on the front row for the first time in a decade and Zhou puts his team in Q3 in Montreal for the first time since 2008. Here are the facts and statistics from qualifying at the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix!
VERSTAPPEN ON POLE
Max Verstappen took pole position at the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix, becoming only the fourth different polesitter at the Canadian Grand Prix in the past 16 years. Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel shared all but one of the previous 12 poles at the track.
Overall, Verstappen is the 21st different driver to take pole at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He becomes the 17th driver to take pole at 13 different circuits during his career.
Verstappen took the 15th pole position of his career, just as Charles Leclerc did at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s pole margin was 0.645 seconds. That’s the largest Canadian Grand Prix pole margin since Nelson Piquet set the fastest lap by 0.756 seconds. Overall, Verstappen’s is the fourth largest pole margin in Montreal.
Taking their first pole position at the track since 2013, Red Bull become the fifth team to record four pole positions at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
IN THE TOP 10
Fernando Alonso qualified on the front row for the first time since he last took pole position at the 2012 German Grand Prix. This was Alonso’s first Q3 appearance in Canada since 2016 as well as his first front row qualification at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve since 2011.
Alonso recorded the Enstone-based team’s first front row at the Canadian Grand Prix since both Alonso and Renault team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella qualified on the front row in 2006. Overall, it is the team’s first front row start since Kimi Raikkonen lined up second on the grid at the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz qualified in third position, making the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix the first to feature two Spanish drivers in the top three on the grid. This will be the first time since 2016 that no Ferrari drivers have appeared on the front row in Canada.
Sainz recorded his best ever Canadian Grand Prix qualifying result. His previous best was ninth, which he recorded on each of his two previous visits here.
With their team-mates both out in Q2, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz are now the only drivers to have reached Q3 at every race so far this year.
With Lewis Hamilton qualifying fourth and George Russell eighth, this will be the first Canadian Grand Prix since 2012 at which no Mercedes drivers have lined up on the front row. Mercedes are the team with the longest active double Q3 appearance streak in Canada, having reached Q3 with both cars on all of their last ten visits to Montreal.
Hamilton recorded his best qualifying result of the season to date with fourth place. This is only the third time he has failed to qualify on the front row at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
For the first time at the Canadian Grand Prix, both Haas drivers reached Q3. With Kevin Magnussen fifth and Mick Schumacher sixth, Haas equal their best ever combined qualifying result. They last qualified with both cars in the top six at the 2018 German Grand Prix.
Sixth place is Schumacher’s best Formula 1 qualifying result to date.
This being his 129th qualifying appearance, Magnussen moves up to ninth on the all time list of most qualifications without a pole position. He moves ahead of Adrian Sutil.
Daniel Ricciardo reached Q3 at the Canadian Grand Prix for an eighth consecutive visit to the track. Ninth place is his worst qualifying result since last qualifying ninth in 2015.
Out-qualifying his team-mate for the second race in a row, Zhou Guanyu reached Q3 for the first time in his Formula 1 career. Overall, he is the 63rd driver to appear in Q3 since the qualifying system was introduced in 2006.
Zhou’s tenth place in qualifying is the first time that his team has reached Q3 at the Canadian Grand Prix since 2008. Back then, the team was named BMW Sauber and went on to record a 1-2 finish in the race.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon maintained their 100% Q3 appearance record at the Canadian Grand Prix, while Zhou Guanyu joined the club.
OUT IN Q2
Both Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris lost their 100% Q3 appearance records at the Canadian Grand Prix. Norris suffered an engine issue in Q2, leaving him unable to set a competitive time in the closing stages. 14th place is his worst qualifying result of the year to date.
Perez made this the first time since the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix that a Red Bull driver has failed to reach Q3.
This was Perez’s fifth Q2 exit at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, setting a new record for the most Q2 eliminations at the Montreal track.
With a back of the grid power unit penalty on the cards for Charles Leclerc, the Monegasque driver did not reach Q3 or qualify on the front row for the first time this year. This is only the third time that a Ferrari driver has not reached Q3 in Canada, after Felipe Massa in 2013 and Sebastian Vettel in 2015.
This was the first time a Ferrari driver has not reached Q3 since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
With 12th place, Alex Albon recorded his best qualifying result of the year to date. This is the first time a Williams driver has made it out of Q1 since Albon did so at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. This was also the first time since 2017 that a Williams driver made it out of Q1 at the Canadian Grand Prix.
OUT IN Q1
With Pierre Gasly 16th and Yuki Tsunoda taking an engine penalty and qualifying last, this was AlphaTauri’s second double Q1 exit of the season, after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Gasly recorded his third Q1 exit of the year, while Tsunoda recorded his fourth. This is the second time in 2022 that Tsunoda has qualified last.
2022 is the first time since 2008 that both of the Red Bull junior team’s drivers have been eliminated in Q1 at the Canadian Grand Prix.
With Sebastian Vettel 17th and Lance Stroll 18th, this is Aston Martin’s third double Q1 exit of the 2022 season. This is the second Canadian Grand Prix in succession at which both of the Silverstone team’s cars have been out in Q1.
Vettel failed to reach Q2 at the Canadian Grand Prix for the first time since 2015.
Stroll is still yet to make it out of Q1 at his home Grand Prix. This was his fourth Q1 exit in a row, which his longest streak of Q1 eliminations since his run of 14 between the 2018 United States Grand Prix and the 2019 British Grand Prix. Stroll equals Marcus Ericsson and Heikki Kovalainen as the driver to have had the most Q1 exits at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Stroll moves ahead of Jarno Trulli to eighth in the all-time list of most Q1 eliminations. This was his 53rd Q1 exit.
Nicholas Latifi, who qualified 19th, is now on the longest Q1 exit streak of his career. This was the 16th consecutive race at which he’s been out in Q1.
