Motorsport

LEWIS HAMILTON’s hopes of taking the fight to Max Verstappen were washed out as the Red Bull man took pole for Sunday’s Canadian GP.The Dutchman timed it beautifully as he set his quickest lap before rain lashed down in Montreal.
Lewis Hamilton missed out on pole at the Canadian GPCredit: EPA
Wet conditions meant drivers were unable to complete final lapsCredit: Getty
The final session was stopped after Oscar Piastri crashed out, but when it restarted it was simply too wet for the drivers to better their lap times.
It cost Hamilton, who will start in fourth alongside his Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who qualified in fifth.
Hamilton said: “It was a good result. Most people probably underestimated just how hard it was out there for everybody.
“It’s very tricky to keep it on track and deliver when the time comes. It was very slippery and difficult to generate temperature in the tyres.
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“But I’m grateful for the result for George and I and hopefully from there we can move forwards [in the race].
“But we are ahead of the Ferraris, Max will be gone most likely, but if I can hold on to Fernando Alonso and give him hell, that’s what I’ll do.”
Verstappen, who is now going for his 41st win in F1 which would equal Ayrton Senna’s total, said: “It was completely wet but the car improved and you have to stay on top of the conditions.
“It was super slippery but we made the right calls at the right time. I like driving in the wet, I come from Holland, we are used to it.”
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Nico Hulkenberg was the shock result of the day as he qualified in second place alongside Verstappen as he too benefitted from setting a lap time before the heavens opened.
The Haas man added: “It was a wild quali, with crazy conditions around here with the walls so close, but it was fun. Obviously unexpected but everyone is happy.
“In this weather is it a lot about the communication and radio calls and seeing what the other teams are doing but it worked out pretty well.”
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was third and said: “It was a tricky qualifying in choosing the right tyre at the right time.”
Max Verstappen is on pole againCredit: AP
However, it was another horrendous mess from Ferrari as Charles Leclerc missed the top 10 shootout for the second time running.
Ferrari cocked-up their strategy in Barcelona and they did the same in Montreal as they reacted too slowly to the rain.
And Red Bull’s under-fire Mexican Sergio Perez was also given the boot from Q2 as he did little to ease the pressure building on him as he continued to be trounced by Verstappen.
Pierre Gasly was the biggest casualty from FP1 as the Alpine driver was clearly left frustrated at failing to reach the top 15.
The Frenchman lashed out in his cockpit as he was blocked on his hot lap by Carlos Sainz, which is likely to earn the Spaniard a penalty.
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Not that is much help to Gasly, who shouted over the team radio: “He should be banned for such a thing! I am going at 300 [kmh].”
Sainz had only just made it into qualifying after crashing his car during final practice, causing damage to the front and back of his car as he spun into the barriers. More

SINCE Formula One began 63 years ago, many great drivers made history and secured their place in the history books. However, now the rankings of drivers with the most points ever has been revealed.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen both rank in the top five of the listCredit: EPA
But F1 great Michael Schumacher has a surprisingly low rankingCredit: AP:Associated Press
Topping the list is seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Despite not winning a race since December 2021, the Brit’s exploits from years past have secured his position on top of these rankings.
Since starting his career in 2007 he has always been able to score healthy points in every season, winning a race every year except for 2022.
Overall, he has mustered an incredible 4492.5 points, giving him a healthy lead over next best driver Sebastian Vettel.
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The German earned 3098 points over a trophy-laden career which saw him win four titles in a row at Red Bull.
While the titles evaporated at Ferrari, Vettel continued to challenge for race wins.
Rounding out the podium is Vettel’s Red Bull successor Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman has amassed 2181.5 points and only overtook the driver in fourth of this list during this season’s Monaco Grand Prix.
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Here’s how the top ten F1 points rankings look
Verstappen is the driver to beat at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, having already won five races this season and winning the last two F1 seasons.
The 25-year-old is the first driver on the list to have raced his entire career under the new points system – introduced in 2010 – which upped points for a win up from 10 to 25.
Aston Martin and fellow two-time F1 champ Fernando Alonso is hot on Verstappen’s heels with 2160 points.
Having made his debut back in 2001, the 41-year-old Spaniard is the longest-serving driver on the grid.
A duo of former Finnish F1 drivers rank next, with last Ferrari champion Kimi Raikkonen scoring 1873 points.
Valtteri Bottas ranks in sixth with 1791 points, but is the first driver on the list to not win a drivers title.
The Alfa Romeo driver is ironically higher than Nico Rosberg, the man he replaced at Mercedes.
Rosberg retired at the peak of his career, and the German-Finnish driver’s tally of 1594.5 also places him above legend Michael Schumacher.
Despite having the joint-most titles in F1, Schumacher drive nearly all of his career under the old points system, meaning his 1566 points can rank him only in eighth in the list.
However, had he been racing under the modern system, the German would have accrued a mighty 4660 points, which would still place him behind Hamilton.
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Though Hamilton himself would also receive a bonus if his whole career came under the current system, with his total shooting up to over 5000.
Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo round out the list, with the former seeming to be the one threat to Verstappen’s bid of landing a third title in a row.
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THE Canadian GP got off to a false start after race bosses were forced to scrap first practice due to a CCTV failure.Pierre Gasly ground to a halt in his Alpine but the session did not restart as Race Control spotted that the local CCTV cameras had failed.
The practice session was stopped due to a CCTV failureCredit: Splash
The CCTV failure came after Pierre Gasly’s Alpine had stopped on the trackCredit: Alamy
It came after only three laps and as the clock ticked down, the FIA eventually canned the session.
A statement from the FIA said: “The delay will be longer as the CCTV is not synced correctly and until the issue has been fixed we cannot run on track.
“This system is a local installation and they are continuing to work to resolve the problem.
“The clock will continue to run down on FP1 and the session won’t be extended as there must be 2.5hrs between FP1 and FP2. We are looking at options to extend FP2.”
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In order to compensate for the lost track time, the FIA increased FP2 to 90 minutes rather than the usual hour.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen comes into the eighth race of the season off the back of three successive victories.
He has opened up a 53-point lead over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.
And he is the overwhelming favourite to win in Montreal this weekend in what would be his sixth triumph of 2023.
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Verstappen is eyeing a third consecutive F1 drivers’ title.
Since debuting in the sport eight years ago, he has picked up 40 wins from 170 race starts.
But he had to wait until last year to clinch his first Canadian GP victory – which he won by less than a second from Carlos Sainz. More