Canadian Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Bearman and Ocon ran three new sets of Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires in Q1 – the team utilizing an extra set following the red flag stop caused by the Williams of Alex Albon and subsequent re-start. Bearman moved into Q2 with a fastest final lap of 1:12.306 (P12) while Ocon joined his teammate in the top-15 courtesy of a best lap of 1:12.378 (P15).

Once into Q2 Bearman and Ocon then ran two sets of used softs on their respective VF-25s. Bearman’s opening lap proved to be his quickest with the British rookie exiting qualifying in P14 on a 1:12.340 effort. Ocon’s fastest tour, a 1:12.634, came on the Frenchman’s second stint and placed him P15 on the timesheet.

George Russell claimed pole for Mercedes thanks to a 1:10.899 lap in Q3, with Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing completing the front-row on a 1:11.059 fast lap.

Ollie Bearman:

“It was a tough session, and I made my life a bit difficult in Q1 by missing the first lap, so I was a little bit on the backfoot but luckily managed to squeeze through on a good lap. In Q2, we only had used tires so that made life harder, and the car was more edge on the used set. On the second lap, I tried to get a bit more out of it, but the tires weren’t really there so we didn’t get to go through. I’m a bit disappointed with qualifying – the car really had a bit better performance than what showed on the timesheets – but I am still looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Esteban Ocon:

“It was a bit of a tricky qualifying, for sure, especially on the used tires at the end. I think it’s still all to play for. It’s a difficult one to get right because of the degradation of the tires, it doesn’t warn you when it comes, so I hope we can get some opportunities through it all. We’ve done a good job this weekend with what we’ve got, but there’s still margin for us to do better.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“Overnight we made improvements with the car, so FP3 was better and our drivers were happier with the car. Then, going into quali we knew it was going to be tight, so our first focus was getting out of Q1, and we maximized our running time but due to the red flag, it meant we had to put on our third set of soft tires to get out of Q1 – which we did with both cars. Previous data showed that the used soft tire wasn’t too bad compared to new mediums, so we went for used softs in Q2 but after our first run, we should’ve changed. However, we didn’t want to do that because we needed them for the race but the difference between the two compounds was bigger than anticipated. Looking ahead to tomorrow though, we have one new set of medium and two new sets of hard tires, so we have to take advantage of that. We’ll do everything possible to get both cars into points from where we are.”