Vettel claims first pole position of 2019

Sebastian Vettel will start the Canadian Grand Prix from pole position, his first pole of the 2019 season.

The Ferrari driver posted a time of 1:10.240 at the end of Q3, beating Lewis Hamilton by just 0.2s.

Vettel’s teammate Charles Leclerc will start from the second row alongside Daniel Ricciardo, who had Renault’s best qualifying performance so far this season.

Racing Point’s preparations for the session were hindered by Lance Stroll’s engine failure at the end of FP3. The team were able to get his car ready for the start of qualifying, but he and Sergio Perez both found themselves towards the bottom of the timesheets, along with the Williams drivers and Kimi Raikkonen, who was outqualified by teammate Antonio Giovinazzi.

Kevin Magnussen ended Q2 with a big crash, clipping the wall of champions before being thrown across the track into the barrier opposite. The incident ended the session prematurely, preventing Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean from completing their flying laps, and ending their hopes of reaching the top 10 shootout. Magnussen’s time was enough for him to go through to Q3, but the damage to his car meant he wasn’t able to take part.

There was a short delay while the Dane’s stricken Haas was craned away and the marshals cleared the track, but it was Hamilton who had the edge at the start of Q3, while teammate Valtteri Bottas spun on his opening flying lap.

Hamilton improved his time with his second run, but the Ferrari duo were both going faster, allowing Vettel to beat the Mercedes driver’s time, with Leclerc just missing out.

Pierre Gasly could only manage fifth, despite being the only Red Bull driver in the top 10, while Bottas had to settle for sixth after failing to recover from his early Q3 error.

Provisional qualifying result:

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)

2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

4. Daniel Ricciardo (Renault)

5. Pierre Gasly (Red Bull)

6. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)

7. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault)

8. Lando Norris (McLaren)

9. Carlos Sainz (McLaren)

10. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

11. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

12. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso)

13. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)

14. Alexander Albon (Toro Rosso)

15. Romain Grosjean (Haas)

16. Sergio Perez (Racing Point)

17. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)

18. Lance Stroll (Racing Point)

19. George Russell (Williams)

20. Robert Kubica (Williams)