Nico Rosberg admitted he just could not pull a quicker lap out of the bag after narrowly missing out on pole position to Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in Canada.
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The German was leapfrogged on the time-sheets in the second session by countryman Sebastian Vettel, the four times champion, who was second fastest in a Ferrari that has a new turbocharger for this race.
“Fortunately though, we are looking strong and the points are won tomorrow, so we will make sure we fight for another top-ten finish in the race”.
Britain’s Lewis Hamilton swept to his fifth Canadian Grand Prix pole position on Saturday and piled more pressure on his championship-leading Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. Red Bull star Max Verstappen finished fifth in a session where he held P3 till the last minute when Vettel and Ricciardo snatched it. “I’ve generally been really happy with the vehicle so far”, said Hamilton. “I hope we can use the vehicle in the best way and stay completely away from the wall”.
Missing out on advancing to the final round were both Haas drivers.
It had rained during the break between FP3 and qualifying, but the track was dry as the 16-minute Q1 began. Daniel Ricciardo was fourth two weeks after his Red Bull team squandered a chance at a victory in Monaco by not having his tires ready when it called him in for a pit stop.
“My pole lap was definitely at the lower end of the pole laps that I’ve had!” Kimi Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 on an overcast day with changeable conditions.
Rosberg topped the session on 1m13.714s, as all drivers apart from the Force Indias opted for ultrasofts from the start of qualifying. “It’s such a great place to drive, the people wave at you on an out lap and just appreciate Formula 1 being here, so the plan for tomorrow is to enjoy and try to do well”.
“If there’s a wall, you don’t mind, so much, hitting it if it is the world champions’ wall”, said Sainz.
The Spaniard may not have made the final shootout at all were it not for countryman Carlos Sainz becoming the Wall of Champions’ first victim of the weekend.
The eighteen-minute long first session of qualifying got underway with all the drivers on the track because of the threat of rain. After the chequered flag, drivers eliminated included Palmer, Wehrlein, Ericsson, Nasr, Haryanto and Magnussen. For some reason, we had it at the beginning of the year, but we haven’t managed to bring them back in the window since.
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Notes: Renault’s Kevin Magnussen did not take part in the qualifying session after crashing into a wall during the morning’s practice session. … The fastest all-time qualifying lap at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is 1:12.275 (Ralf Schumacher, 2004).
