What the teams said – Sprint Qualifying in Canada

Mercedes

Antonelli was fastest in FP1 from his team mate, with those two comfortably ahead of the rest. Russell did get a lucky break late on in practice, as he spun out of Turn 1 and managed to scrub enough speed to kiss the barriers and emerge with an undamaged car. He will be hoping that luck holds for the rest of the weekend.

Mercedes looked to have more of a fight on their hands in Sprint Qualifying, with the field closing up and Hamilton in particular taking the battle right to his former team. But in the end Russell was the one to grab pole by 0.068s from his team mate. The upgrade package did its job, keeping them ahead of the chasing pack.

Kimi Antonelli, 2nd, 1:13.033

"My Sprint Qualifying session wasn't particularly clean. I made a mistake in SQ2 and ran through the grass; that threw me off a little bit. In SQ3, I decided not to do a prep lap, and the tyres were a little cold on my first effort. My second lap was faster, but it still wasn't great. P2 is still a solid result though and I am sure we will make a better go of it tomorrow.

"We've brought a sizeable update here and we need to understand more about it. It's clearly got good potential, and we've seen some of that already. It's given us an edge here today in Montreal but I'm sure the rest of the weekend will be very competitive with several other teams in the mix. Let's see what we can do in tomorrow's Sprint and go from there."

George Russell, 1st, 1:12.965

"We're pleased to get pole for tomorrow's Sprint, but we know it's only a very small part of this weekend's job. We've brought a large upgrade package here and it's good to see it performing well from the off. We were put under pressure by both McLaren and Ferrari today though and we know they will be hot on our heels across Saturday and Sunday.

"One of our major weaknesses so far this year have been our starts. We have focused on improving them and we have the chance in the Sprint to show that we have made progress. If we don't get off the line well, we know that our competitors will take their chance. We will do our homework overnight and hopefully we can carry our confidence and momentum from today into the rest of the weekend."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"It's been a solid start to the weekend and it's nice to finish the day with Sprint pole and a front row lock-out. We had the update kit on from the start of FP1 and so far, that seems to be performing in line with expectation. The pace in that first session was encouraging, especially on the Soft tyre but we were still struggling to generate enough tyre temperature to get the maximum grip. In Qualifying, as we expected, our competitors moved towards us; a gap of 0.3s to your nearest challenger is usually quite good around a short track like this but Lewis (Hamilton) was very strong in the first half of the lap, so there is clearly something to understand there as the final gap may not have been fully representative.

"It's going to be interesting to see how the car performs on a long run in the Sprint tomorrow. As races, they are normally good for information gathering but conditions on Sunday look cooler and possibly wet, so we'll have to consider that in any further set-up tuning that we do ahead of Qualifying."

McLaren

Piastri’s form heading into Sprint Qualifying was a little unknown, as he did not get a clean soft tyre lap in during practice after locking up heavily and flat spotting his tyres. He looked a match for his team mate at least, but in the end it was Norris who impressed the most in SQ3. He grabbed third ahead of Piastri’s fourth, and admitted that he left lap time out there – but not enough to challenge for the front row. With the second half of their upgrade package bolted on, McLaren seem in a good place but could not quite replicate the form they showed in Miami last time out, a track both drivers admitted does tend to suit their car.

Lando Norris, 3rd, 1:13.280

“Given how the morning went, a P3 is a very good result and a bit of a turnaround. We were worried about being off the pace, and I didn’t have much confidence in the car, but we made some changes that delivered a clear step forward. We returned to the previous spec front wing going into Sprint Quali, which gave me some more confidence. The lap was decent, I could have found a bit more, but the gap to the front wasn’t that big, which is encouraging.

“I’m proud of the team for reacting quickly and doing such a good job under tricky conditions. The upgrade package is working well, some bits, mainly the front wing, still need more time, and we may reintroduce them further down the line. That said, the rest of the car worked well, and for the first time this weekend, I felt genuinely confident in Q3 on the Soft tyre. It’s a good step forward, and we’ll keep refining from here.”

Oscar Piastri, 4th, 1:13.299

“P4. I am relatively happy with that. We maximised what we could, especially after a messier FP1 with the delays and the Red Flags, which meant we didn’t get as much learning time as we had hoped. The Mercedes look strong with their new package, so we still have work to do to find more performance and close that gap.

“Thanks to the team for their work to get the new parts ready for Canada. It was a big package to deliver, and we have some more work to do on the front wing – we ended up running with the older one in Sprint Qualifying as we felt more comfortable with it.

“Let’s see what we can do in the Sprint tomorrow and see what we can optimise ahead of Grand Prix Qualifying.”

Neil Houldey, Technical Director - Applied Engineering

"We're pleased to have come out of Sprint Qualifying with a third and fourth place. We've made great progress over the last few races, the upgrade in Miami had a big effect on closing the gap to the front, and the new parts we've brought here seem to have helped close it a little bit more again.

“With that said, we reverted to the old specification front wing after FP1 this morning. We found during the session that the front wing wasn’t quite delivering what we expected, and we ultimately took the call to run the previous specification front wing, which gave the drivers more confidence and allowed them to unlock more performance.

“There's still an opportunity to extract more performance out of the car for the main Qualifying session. Going forward, our focus remains on adding performance to the car, looking ahead to the next upgrades, and making sure we're in a position where we are fighting for first and second, not just third and fourth. The goal is to close that gap completely."

Ferrari

Ferrari looked quick in practice, although Hamilton did lock up as he explored the grip limits at a track he tends to go well at. His strong form in Canada continued in Sprint Qualifying, and when he topped SQ1, it looked like the seven-time World Champion would be in the mix for pole. But he made a mistake on his first flying run in SQ3, and wound up settling for fifth. He at least beat his team mate, with Leclerc finishing sixth. What those two can do off the line from the third row should be thrilling to watch.

Charles Leclerc, 6th, 1:13.410

"It was a tricky Sprint Qualifying on my side. I haven’t been at ease in the car today, especially in terms of the brake balance, so we will look into it to find some improvements. We have a good idea of what is going on and will do everything to turn things around ahead of the Sprint."

Lewis Hamilton, 5th, 1:13.326

"Today was a solid day for me right from FP and I was having a lot of fun out there. We worked really hard analysing the data over the last couple of weeks and that proved beneficial with the car feeling good throughout the session. SQ1 and SQ2 were positive and it was a shame to not quite keep that going in SQ3. Tonight we’ll keep working to understand where we can extract a bit more performance from the car but I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"Both our drivers were quite competitive throughout Sprint Qualifying. However, lap times here are very close between the teams and today, a few hundredths made the difference between two places. In tomorrow’s Sprint we will be looking to pick up some points and, at the same time make the most of the 23 race laps to learn more and put that knowledge to good use on Sunday in the main event."

Racing Bulls

Lawson lost nearly all of FP1 after stopping his car out on track with a hydraulics issue. Unfortunately, when his car was recovered to the pits a hydraulics leak was found and it could not be fixed in time for him to take part in Sprint Qualifying.

That was the bad news, the good news was that Lindblad impressed from the word go at a track where he has no previous experience. He was quick in practice, and showed that was no fluke by making it to SQ3. He qualified ninth, and is right in the mix for points tomorrow.

Arvid Lindblad, 9th, 1 :13.737

"I’m pleased with our Sprint Quali today. The pace was better than expected and the team did a mega job. We brought a new upgrade this weekend and it’s clearly working well. It's a difficult track to tackle as a rookie, especially on a Sprint weekend, so I’m really happy with our performance, even if there was still a little more to extract in SQ3. With all the disruptions in FP1, nobody was able to complete a proper long run, so it’s hard to know exactly how things will play out tomorrow. Tyre degradation will definitely be a big factor, but tomorrow should be fun and I’m ready to get stuck in."

Liam Lawson, 22nd, No time set in SQ1

"It was a frustrating Friday given I almost didn’t get any track time. In a Sprint weekend, FP1 is really important as it’s the only time you can actually put laps together before any competitive sessions. Overall, the car and the pace looked really good out there, and I also felt comfortable this morning during the couple of laps that I did. I’m going to be playing catch-up tomorrow. This track is quite hard and a bit unique, so the way we’ll drive in the Sprint will be different from Qualifying. The afternoon will be when we'll have to make the biggest step, but I'm focused on getting back out there tomorrow."

Mattia Spini, Head of Trackside Engineering

“The track here in Montreal presents several challenges and it was an eventful day with several red flags. The team arrived with an aero upgrade that worked as expected and brought a decent step in performance. Despite being the first time for Arvid at this track, he was quickly up to speed and executed a flawless Sprint Quali, finishing P9 ahead of all the midfield cars which was a great result.

"It was a tough one on Liam's side of the garage. A technical issue after just two push laps in FP1 forced a Power Unit change and that ruled him out of Sprint Qualifying entirely. It's a real shame, but there's no doubt he had the pace to be in SQ3 alongside Arvid, and he deserved the chance to show it. Now the focus is on tomorrow whereby we will aim to score points in the Sprint with Arvid and give the best chance to both our drivers in Qualifying with a fast and reliable car."

Williams

Albon unluckily crashed into the walls in FP1, stopping on track with a car that had suffered significant damage. So major was that damage, Albon was then unable to take part in Sprint Qualifying. Sainz made sure the team at least had one thing to smile about as he made it all the way to SQ3, setting a late lap time to knock Hulkenberg out. The Spaniard was not overly competitive in the final segment of the session, but making SQ3 is an achievement in itself – especially considering where the team started the season.

Alex Albon, 21st, No time set in SQ1

“It’s pretty unfortunate and an unlucky incident in FP1 that ended our day early. Having very limited run time heading into the rest of the weekend puts us on the back foot but we’ll try to maximise the package we currently have. A big thank you to the garage crew and their efforts to repair the car, as there was quite a bit of damage that required the gearbox and PU to be replaced. Carlos had a good Sprint qualifying, so it looks like the car is in a good place and we can bounce back and hopefully fight for points this weekend.”

Carlos Sainz, 10th, 1:14.536

“It was a really good Sprint qualifying today. My lap in SQ2 felt super strong and I think we maximised what this car is capable of for now. We’ve made some solid progress in the past few races and getting into SQ3 for the first time this season feels like a bit of a reward for the efforts we are making to improve the car. Unfortunately, the top eight is still another step ahead, so we’ll put in a good fight tomorrow and be ready to take any opportunities.”

James Vowles, Team Principal

“Firstly, I’m really happy with the team. It’s been a great three weeks with everyone working extremely hard to bring performance. We have moved forward slightly, progressing into SQ3 for the first time with Carlos today as reward.

“With Alex, it was an unfortunate incident in FP1 and one out of his control, costing him precious time in the car, especially with one practice session before Sprint qualifying. I know he would’ve been up there fighting with Carlos into SQ3, so it’s disappointing to have that taken away from him, but we’ll make sure to deliver the strongest car we can tomorrow so he can demonstrate the performance. We’re on the right path, so we’ll do our best to fight for points across the opportunities that come our way this weekend.”

Audi

Audi had a relatively quiet day in Montreal, one of few teams not to get in any trouble. They slowly built into their weekend, with Hulkenberg getting very close to making SQ3. He was just pipped at the last moment by Sainz by half a tenth. He did out-qualify his team mate though, although those two were closely matched as well. Points are not unthinkable for Audi in the Sprint, but they might need a little bit of luck given that their starts have not set the world alight just yet.

Nico Hulkenberg, 11th, 1:14.595

“FP1 was quite disrupted on my side, so it wasn’t the smoothest build-up heading into Sprint Qualifying. Nevertheless, the car felt better as the day progressed and overall, the feeling was decent. Missing out by half a tenth is never ideal, especially in such a tight midfield fight, but the encouraging part is that we look competitive again. With the Sprint tomorrow morning, there’s still plenty to play for. We’ll take the learnings from today, keep pushing and aim to put ourselves on the right side of things tomorrow.”

Gabriel Bortoleto, 12th, 1:14.627

“I think we could have extracted a little bit more from our package today. My last lap was decent, but not enough to make it through to SQ3. The track was tricky out there – very dirty so early in the race weekend – and that also put a strain on tyre temperatures. Still, I think we can be quite satisfied with what we’ve put together. Looking at where we stand, I think we have a realistic chance of being in the mix in the top 10 tomorrow."

Allan McNish, Racing Director

“As we expected from Free Practice and previous sessions, Sprint Qualifying was always going to be an extremely tight affair, with Nico and Gabi within four hundreds of each other. It is obviously frustrating to miss on the final segment of Sprint Qualifying for such small margins but, on the positive side, it was good to see that both drivers could get the car right into the right window. This puts us in a reasonable position for tomorrow’s Sprint and also gives us confidence heading into the main race itself. There’s still a bit of work to do overnight, and hopefully we can find those four hundredths to make a crucial step forward.”

Alpine

Colapinto was the first to run into difficulties in Canada, rolling into the pit lane at the end of his first out-lap with no power. The team opted to change part of his PU, so he had no laps under his belt heading into Sprint Qualifying. Despite that, the Argentine racer made it to SQ2 which was encouraging.

Sadly his team mate could not join him there, Gasly making a shock SQ1 exit. His first lap simply was not good enough, and then came the red flags. With just under two minutes on the clock, it was always going to be a struggle for all the cars to get round in time to start a lap, and Gasly did everything he could which included overtaking a row of cars in the pit lane – to no avail. He exited in SQ1 for his worst one-lap result of the season.

Pierre Gasly, 19th, 1:16.642

“It's not a great start to our weekend here in Canada and to be out in SQ1 was not what we expected. We've had a difficult day in general. Free Practice 1 was far from smooth with some red flags and we could not do all the work we wanted to do in that session. We are quite far off in some areas, which we have to improve in Qualifying tomorrow when it counts for the Grand Prix. The Sprint Race will be challenging from so far back so we will give it a go and try to learn as much as we can and put things right.”

Franco Colapinto, 13th, 1:14.702

“Given how we started the day with almost no running in Free Practice 1, I think we did a good job in Sprint Qualifying. The track is very dirty and quite low grip so you just need time in the car and lots of laps to keep learning. I was learning a lot throughout Sprint Qualifying, a very tough session, so we did quite well to adapt and credit to the team for having the car ready and prepared after what had happened in Practice. I think tomorrow we can definitely do a better job once we have more time in the car after the Sprint Race. We have some things to improve and I think we can find something extra ahead of Qualifying.”

Steve Nielsen, Managing Director

“We have plenty to reflect on after what has been a very difficult Friday for the team in Montréal. In Free Practice 1, we had an issue on Franco's car, which meant he was left with no running at all in that session, which was a pity as we had planned to do lot of work across both cars where we had aimed to run some tests and comparisons. Pierre did not have a clean session and that left us on the back foot going into Sprint Qualifying. We know some fundamental areas where we are lacking, which I am sure can be resolved for Qualifying tomorrow. It won't be an easy Sprint given our starting positions but it does offer a chance for more track time and more opportunities to understand where we can improve and maximise our package going into the business end of the weekend.”

Haas

Ocon had a very hairy moment in practice, spinning and ripping the front wing from his car. He limped back to the pits for a new nose, but then was sent to the stewards for exiting the pit lane under a red light. Fortunately for the team, the stewards took no further action.

But the bigger issue for Haas was their lack of pace, despite the car running some upgrades. Both Bearman and Ocon exited in SQ2, never looking likely to make it to the top 10 with Ocon in the older-spec car out-qualifying Bearman, who had the latest package. They will be analysing the data, to see if there is a better car set-up they can try come Qualifying tomorrow.

Esteban Ocon, 14th, 1:14.928

“We were extremely lucky this morning because it was a hard hit, so I’m probably going to feel it tomorrow. We only damaged the front wing, which was the best thing that could’ve happened in that situation, really. We struggled a little bit getting the car around, riding the kerbs a little bit, and everything seemed too stiff for us to start with. We improved the car a little bit, but there’s still plenty to look at for tomorrow’s qualifying, which is the target. We’re working flat out to understand both old and new packages, the setup, and it’s proving to be more difficult than we were expecting.”

Ollie Bearman, 15th, 1:15.928

“It’s been a tough day, honestly. We expected the upgrade to be easier to put on track, and we expected it to be a step forward straight away but that hasn’t really been the case. We really struggled in free practice and we didn’t learn much, and we made a big change for Sprint qualifying, so we need to see if that worked. I struggled with grip out there and struggled to feel confident with the balance we had, so let's see what we can learn tonight. It’s a shame, but that’s the Sprint format. With the amount of interruptions we had, we didn’t complete half of our run plan, and if you’re bringing an upgrade like that and there are interruptions like there were, it makes it extra tough.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“It’s been a very tough day. We didn’t have a good practice at all, the car wasn’t where it should’ve been. At a circuit like this, where the walls are so close, drivers need to keep running, gain confidence, and get closer to the wall. We couldn’t get either driver there, whether it was the old package or the upgraded package; we didn’t get it right. In practice, drivers couldn’t get into it like they should’ve been able to, so it put us on a massive back foot going into Sprint qualifying. Then, the cars were better, but we were playing catch-up. Ultimately, we’ve finished the day with more questions than answers, so we have a lot of things to review. Our focus is to understand both packages; why we couldn’t extract the performance, and why drivers found it so difficult. We need to understand that tonight, and how we get the better car ready for qualifying and the race.”

Aston Martin

Alonso impressed in practice, winding up P10 despite running the soft tyre at an early stage before the track had fully rubbered in. He seemed properly up for the fight and found himself in P14 as the clock ticked down in SQ1, only to push too hard, lock up the front tyres and run straight on into the barriers. That brought out the red flags and ended his involvement in Sprint Qualifying – so although he did technically make SQ2, he was unable to come out and take part.

As for Stroll, he exited at the first time of asking at his home race. He did rush round after running resumed at the end of SQ1 and was one of just three cars to make it across the line in time to start a lap, but made a mistake and aborted.

Fernando Alonso, 16th, No time set in SQ2

“Unfortunately I locked up the fronts into Turn 3 and I was a passenger. We were fighting above our expectations before that incident. We’ll see what we can learn tomorrow with the Sprint and another Qualifying session.”

Lance Stroll, 18th, 1:16.354

"We did what we could to get out for one final lap after the red flag, but the tyres were too cold after sitting in the pitlane and we couldn't improve the lap time. That's just how it goes sometimes. We’ll go through the data, see where we can improve and hopefully make some progress tomorrow.”

Cadillac

Bottas needed some significant set-up changes in FP1 and thus lost lap time, but at least he does have plenty of experience at this track. He was also unlucky in SQ1, as he was on a hot lap and setting personal best sectors when the red flags came out. Both Cadillac cars went back out when the session resumed but neither could get round in time to start a lap and thus had to settle with an early exit.

Valtteri Bottas, 20th, 1:16.866

“We were unlucky today. I was banking everything on the last two laps but unfortunately that never happened with the red flag. Even though the results don’t show now, I still feel like we are making progress. We’ve changed quite a lot with my car for this weekend including a different chassis. It's been feeling better and quite different to the previous races. There's still lots of sessions that matter with it being a Sprint weekend, so we’ll keep pushing.”

Sergio Perez, 17th, 1:16.002

“I think we maximised our performance today, which is something that makes me pleased. We made some good changes going into Sprint Quali and were really close to getting into SQ2, but at the end there was just not enough time for everyone to get another lap in. Hopefully tomorrow we can have a good Sprint and set ourselves up well for qualifying and then the race. Our main objective is to get as much learning as possible ahead of the race, especially as Sunday is looking like it could be tricky conditions.”

Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal

“Today felt like we took another step forward. We’ve run reliably and despite a tricky practice session interrupted by red flags, we kept focus and improved our performance going into Sprint Qualifying. We came close to making it into SQ2 and I think we could have had a real shot with both cars on our final lap but sadly we didn’t pass the flag in time after the restart. We will take this momentum into the Sprint tomorrow and gather as much information as possible for Sunday’s race.”

Pirelli

Simone Berra, Pirelli Chief Engineer

"As is usually the case on Sprint-format weekends, the majority of teams used a set of Hard tyres for most of the free practice session, but the programmes varied from team to team. Some combined long runs with performance runs, while others preferred to focus mainly on the latter, probably with the aim of carefully assessing whether the developments introduced after Miami were effective on track.

"It is clear that the cars have fully capitalised on the upgrades introduced in Montreal. Taking lap times as a reference, the gaps are markedly smaller than the roughly two-second margin to last year’s benchmarks that teams had projected in their pre-event simulations. Graining, which has always been a feature of this circuit, is limited to the front-left tyre and therefore does not affect the rear axle, which is the limiting factor at this track. The characteristics of the circuit also provide little energy to the tyres, meaning they require extra care to be brought into the correct operating window.

"We saw this in Sprint Qualifying, where careful management of the outlap was crucial in extracting the best lap from the two softer compounds. The same will apply tomorrow in qualifying for the race, although drivers should find the track in better condition than today. The asphalt is constantly evolving and will continue to improve over the coming days."