Quali recap: Carlos eighth, Charles eleventh

Grey clouds and a few drops of rain as qualifying begins at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit. The mechanics have done a great job to repair Carlos Sainz’s car after he hit the barrier in Free Practice 3. Charles Leclerc and his team-mate begin Q1 on intermediate tyres. Air temperature is 16 degrees, the track is at 18.

Q1. The session has only just begun when it has to be red flagged when Guanyu Zhou has to park his car at the side of the track. The session resumes with 14’33” left on the clock. Charles begins with a 1’23”396, but Carlos encounters traffic and laps in 1’24”219. Leclerc improves to 1’22”253, Carlos laps in 1’23”016, then 1’22”107, 1’22”633 ending with 1’21”843 and 1’22”248. Both drivers go through to Q2.

Q2. It’s intermediates again even though the track is almost dry. Charles laps in 1’20”615, Carlos in 1’20”777 before pitting for Softs. Sainz sets a time of 1’20”398, but Charles gets it wrong at the last chicane and fails to improve on Softs before the rain falls again. He pits for intermediates but is 11^th fastest and thus fails to make the cut to the final shoot-out. 

Q3. The rain increases in intensity and it’s all decided in the first few moments of the session. Carlos goes out on intermediates and posts a time of 1’29”294, just before Oscar Piastri crashes and brings out the red flags. When the session resumes, the rain gets stronger and no one improves.