Qualifying report
Canadian GP: Top 10 quotes after qualifying
Lewis Hamilton storms to Canadian Grand Prix pole to equal Ayrton Senna's career total
Photo by: Sutton Images
| Cla | # | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Time | Gap | km/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 |  Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 1'11.459 | 219.700 | |
| "Honestly, I'm so happy. Montreal has been very good to me over the years. It was such a close battle with the Ferraris - they have been so quick this weekend. I dug down deep... It was a great lap, a sexy lap! I can't quite believe that it all came together so well. After such a tough time in Monaco, we learned from our mistakes. I owe this one to all the team back at the factories in Brackley and Brixworth. I was just shaking when I was presented with Ayrton's helmet. For many of you, Ayrton was your favourite driver. He was mine too. To receive this and match his record is a great honour." | |||||||
| 2 | 5 |  Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 1'11.789 | 0.330 | 218.690 |
| “I was not so happy with my job in the last run of Q3. It is true that we faced tough competition, but we could have been closer. We could even have been ahead, but Lewis did a very good job today. As for me, I lost the car in Turn 2 and from there I knew I had to catch up. The car was very good and I had been happy in the morning session. To be on the front row gives you the chance to make a good start. I am looking forward to tomorrow, I am sure we’re going to have a very close race. This is a nice track and we had a good run here also last year” | |||||||
| 3 | 77 |  Valtteri Bottas |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 1'12.177 | 0.718 | 217.515 |
| "Firstly, a big congratulations to Lewis for his 65th pole position today. It's a great achievement to match Senna. I was really trying hard, but it was a tricky day for me. I struggled with the balance of the car and wasn't really happy in FP3. We made some changes and the car was much better in qualifying, but then in Q3 when it came down to getting those last hundredths and tenths, the car became unstable again. I just couldn't get that lap together. The long runs seem okay though, so once again, I'm expecting it to be very close in the race with Ferrari. It's all about tomorrow." | |||||||
| 4 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 1'12.252 | 0.793 | 217.289 |
| “Today it was a bit tricky: for whatever reason yesterday we had been a bit more comfortable. The car felt pretty OK, but we struggled to make the tires work as we wanted. There was a lot of potential in the car, but I was not driving very well, and did not manage to put a good lap together. My last run was very poor, I made mistakes in the first and second corner and I paid the price for it. Tomorrow it should be a different story. It’s going to be a long race and obviously a lot can happen; you never know here, it’s one of those places where things can change very quickly. We’ll try to make the best choices; we should have the speed, let’s see.” | |||||||
| 5 | 33 |  Max Verstappen |
Red Bull | TAG | 1'12.403 | 0.944 | 216.836 |
| “We know that this circuit is not our favourite and doesn’t particularly suit us so P5 was the best we could aim for, we achieved that so I’m pleased with the result. Ferrari and Mercedes are able to turn their engines up and find that extra pace; we can’t do that at the moment. During the race the engine power difference is slightly less as they cannot run at that level for an entire race, this means we can try to get involved and make ground. I think our race pace looks ok for tomorrow, if we can keep fifth that is the first goal, then we can see what happens in front of us. We are constantly working hard to improve the car, working towards having the best car in the field, so this means constant development. The upgrades we have got this weekend have worked really well which proves we are going in the right direction. It is hard to show that progress in Qualifying, and at a tough track with long straights, but we are definitely improving.” | |||||||
| 6 | 3 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull | TAG | 1'12.557 | 1.098 | 216.376 |
| “Things didn’t really go to plan yesterday, but we had a lot of laps on track this morning in FP3 and understood a lot more. For Qualifying even though we ended up at the tail end of the top six I still felt we were actually in the hunt. We have put ourselves in a good position to at least race with Max so I can’t ask for too much more. The last run I would have loved to improve so there was maybe a tenth in that, but other than that I think we got the most out of it. I’m no Einstein but three years ago I finished first and started on sixth. I will be starting on sixth again tomorrow so that’s easy maths, am I right?” | |||||||
| 7 | 19 |  Felipe Massa |
Williams | Mercedes | 1'12.858 | 1.399 | 215.482 |
| "It was a great qualifying session for me. I’m very happy with everything we’ve done this weekend and I’m very happy with the lap. We were competitive today, but seventh was the best position we could have achieved. The race is tomorrow though, and I was quite happy with the pace in the race simulations yesterday. I’m looking forward to the race as I think we have good pace to be able to fight and score some good points." | |||||||
| 8 | 11 |  Sergio Perez |
Force India | Mercedes | 1'13.018 | 1.559 | 215.009 |
| “I am pleased with our performance today. The car was giving me confidence and my flying laps were clean and tidy. Eighth is a good position to start the race and, even though the strategy options will be quite limited on this track, I am confident we can come away with a decent result. It will be a close fight with the cars around us because the gaps are small, but our race pace looked good yesterday so we should be competitive.” | |||||||
| 9 | 31 |  Esteban Ocon |
Force India | Mercedes | 1'13.135 | 1.676 | 214.666 |
| “I’m pleased with today. The car has been strong since FP1 and we’ve done a good job in all the sessions by always moving forward and improving the car with each run. It’s also a new track for me so I’ve taken things step-by-step and built my confidence with the car and the track. I really enjoyed qualifying – pushing more and more through the chicanes and getting closer to the walls. It’s an old-school track and definitely a challenge for the drivers. To start from ninth means we are already in the points and I have a good feeling for the race. The priority is to get a clean first lap, stay out of trouble and find a rhythm to make the most of our competitive race pace.” | |||||||
| 10 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg |
Renault | Renault | 1'13.271 | 1.812 | 214.267 |
| “I am quite pleased with P10, I think this is as good as it could get for us this afternoon. Yesterday it looked like we had quite a bit of work to do, then this morning looked much better. Now we have to put our heads down, push hard and work for some points tomorrow.” | |||||||
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