Sebastian Vettel takes pole 40 years after Gilles Villeneuve triggered Ferrari’s Canadian love affair

With Lewis Hamilton down in fourth behind Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen, Vettel had reason to put his money on a Ferrari win in a truly unpredictable Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso might think F1 in its current guise is predictable – and it’s hard not to agree at times – but with the top four drivers covered by just 0.232s, and one of them electing to start on the softest tyre compound, Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix holds great promise.

Sebastian Vettel’s pole position was Ferrari’s first here since Michael Schumacher back in 2001, and gave fans of the legendary team something to cheer on the circuit named in honour of Gilles Villeneuve, one of the Scuderia’s most-loved drivers of all time.

Vettel struggled on Friday, damaging his car’s steering when he brushed a wall in first practice, and then failing to find its sweet spot in the second. But he reported a better feel immediately in final practice on Saturday morning, and made the most of that to set the fastest time in the first qualifying session, and then dominate the third with a new unofficial track record of 1m 10.764s.

“I was very happy with the last qualifying session,” the German said. “And very happy with my first lap. On the second attempt I found that little bit that had been missing on the first part of the circuit and was able to repeat what I did in the second half, but I struggled slightly and was not sure whether it would be enough. So when I crossed the line I was pleased to hear over the radio that it was. That was a big relief. I had the confidence to play around and extract more from the car, whereas yesterday I was not really in charge; I was more of a passenger. Today felt a lot more natural.”

His sole problem was having to abort a fast lap at the end of the second qualifying session, due to slow-moving traffic in the final sector.

“I wanted to get a feel for the car and see where we ended up ready for Q3,” he explained. “But on the back straight there were three cars, each doing a maximum of 100 kph. Maybe they had not been told that I was coming, as they were looking to try and get ready for their own flying laps. I was coming at full speed, and had no choice but to abort, so that was surprising.

“But to be on pole here on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is huge for Scuderia Ferrari. All of motorsport in Canada is linked to that name. The following for Ferrari here is huge, and Gilles was a favourite driver and the character that he brought to F1 is still alive today. He left a heritage for people who fell in love with F1 then, and which is enjoyed by their kids and grandchildren today. So it was an important day for us.

Vettel produced an unofficial lap record with his second flying lap (Getty)

“I’m not a bookmaker, but would say our chances tomorrow are good. We qualified on pole for good reasons, but there are a lot of things to look out for and as we have seen many times this year, the race pace is very close between the top three teams. But for sure, if you start on pole you want to win.”

Especially as it is the 40th anniversary of Villeneuve’s maiden victory here, for the Prancing Horse in 1978.

Once again, Valtteri Bottas proved to be Mercedes’ faster driver, albeit by a small margin. The Finn, who might have won three of the preceding six races with slightly better luck, missed out by 0.093s after failing to improve on 1m 10.857s on his second run.

“Today was the first time we used the hypersofts, he said,” and we were still learning with them.”

Vettel will start on pole ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen (Getty)

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton managed a lap of 1m 10.996s which appeared to have left him third until Max Verstappen aced that in the closing moments with 1m 10.937s.

The Dutch prodigy denied that he had been motivated to push really hard after the controversy on Thursday when he threatened to “head butt” the next questioner wishing to know why he has crashed so much this season.

“Yesterday and today we had good pace and were able to push hard,” he said. “But I am always motivated to push. Suggesting I did that because of what was said on Thursday means that normally I don’t do a good job always, and of course I try to do my best every weekend. We’re fast because straight away here I felt that the car was very good.

“Third is a great result, and previously we had extracted the best we could from the car knowing that Q3 would be harder for us [because Ferrari and Mercedes can wind up their power units a little more than Red Bull can].

“In Q3 and in general we were just lacking power and trying to compensate. We showed in Monaco and again here that we have a great car, but with those long straights it was just hard to fight for pole. But the car is really strong and we made progress with it in every session, so I’m very happy.”

Lewis Hamilton could only manage fourth as he struggled for pace (Getty)

Hamilton was philosophical, was though his best lap was only 0.139s off his team-mate’s, his session was scrappier as he struggled with a rear brake problem.

“It was a difficult qualifying,” he said. “My laps weren't good and it just didn't quite come together for me. In practice things looked good and I think I could have been quickest in FP3, but in qualifying I couldn't quite hit the potential we had shown. I don't think today's performance has got anything to do with the older engine. Sebastian simply did a better job when it counted in Q3.

“You can see just how tight things are at the front of the grid, so I think it could be tricky to overtake tomorrow. Sure, it'll be tough to win from fourth here, but nothing is impossible. I'll dig deep tonight. My focus now is on tomorrow.”

The unpredictability on race day will lie partly in Red Bull’s decision to run the Pirelli hypersoft tyres in Q2, which means Verstappen and sixth fastest Daniel Ricciardo must start the race on them. Vettel, like Bottas, Hamilton and fifth fastest Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari, will start on the less grippy but more durable ultrasofts. All four believe that it is the optimum race tyre but Red Bull, who are usually closer on race pace, believe the hypersofts could be an ace up their sleeve.

Verstappen, who really could use a win right now, said simply: “We think it’s a good tyre for us, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”