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After two years of being forced off the schedule due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the popular Canadian Grand Prix makes its much-anticipated return to the Formula One world championship as the ninth round. Be sure to tune in on The Roar for lap-by-lap updates from Montréal from 3:50am (AEST).
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a classic parklands style track, situated on the St Lawrence River and the Île Notre Dame. The 4.3km layout is comprised largely of straights, with several chicanes and slow corners linking them all.
Straights, which will not be music to the ears of the drivers who last time out in Azerbaijan suffered severely from the ongoing bouncing problems of these new ground effect cars. The FIA have however intervened and dictated that they’ll force teams to change setups after scrutineering on safety grounds if they’re found to have excessive bouncing.
Red Bull have tightened their grip on the championship, moving out to an 80-point lead over Ferrari in the constructor’s standings. A second retirement in three races for Charles Leclerc, also paved way for Sergio Perez to surpass him in second behind championship leader Max Verstappen.
The pain does not stop there for Ferrari however, as Leclerc has been forced to take on a new power-unit component for this weekend beyond his yearly allocation – resulting in severe grid penalties. The Monegasque, along with Yuki Tsunoda will start from the rear of the grid with fresh power units.
Verstappen mastered the wet conditions in qualifying for pole position, 0.645-seconds ahead of the ageless Fernando Alonso who put in a season-best effort for Alpine to be on the front row. Carlos Sainz being the sole Ferrari in Q3, lost vital tenths coming out of the final corner on his last attempt – for the third quickest time.
The wet equalised most of the field and allowed both Haas cars to earn their best grid positions for 2022, with Mick Schumacher eyeing his first Formula One points from sixth behind teammate Kevin Magnussen and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
It did catch out the likes of Perez though, who gently found the barriers in Q2 and will have to make his way through the field. 2012 saw the Mexican start fifteenth in a Sauber, en route to a sensational podium.
With dry conditions and plenty of overtaking predicted for race day, what will 70-laps around this thrilling circuit produce? And will Red Bull’s run of consecutive victories in 2022 continue with a first Canadian win since Daniel Ricciardo’s maiden in 2014?
Race Information
Lights out: 4am (AEST)
Venue: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal
TV: Fox Sports
Online: Kayo Sports, Foxtel
Grid
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 2. Fernando Alonso (Alpine), 3. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), 4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 5. Kevin Magnussen (Haas), 6. Mick Schumacher (Haas), 7. Esteban Ocon (Alpine), 8. George Russell (Mercedes), 9. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), 10. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), 11. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), 12. Alexander Albon (Williams), 13. Sergio Perez (Red Bull), 14. Lando Norris (McLaren), 15. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), 16. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), 17. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), 18. Nicholas Latifi (Williams), 19. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 20. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
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