Montreal: Sebastian Vettel had a steering problem that washed out much of the first practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix and then brushed the wall later in the day.
When he brought his Ferrari out for qualifying a day later, his problems — and the rest of the field — were behind him.
“Yesterday, I wasn’t really in charge. More of a passenger,” Vettel said on Saturday after earning his 54th career Formula One pole with the fastest lap ever on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. “Today was a lot more natural.”
Vettel covered the 2.71-mile (4.36-km) track in 1 minute, 10.764 seconds to deprive Lewis Hamilton of a record seventh pole in Montreal. It’s Vettel’s fourth pole on the Ile Notre-Dame, but his first since 2013, when he was on his way to a fourth straight world championship for Red Bull.
It’s the first pole for Ferrari at the track named for one of its most celebrated drivers since Michael Schumacher in 2001.
“Being on pole here with Ferrari means something extra,” Vettel said. “Gilles Villeneuve, the favourite driver of Enzo Ferrari, and I think his charisma, his character that he brought to Formula One, to racing in general, is still alive today.”
Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes will also start in the front row, coming in about one-tenth of a second slower than Vettel. After leading all three practice sessions, Max Verstappen will start third in his Red Bull, alongside Hamilton.
Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari and Monaco winner Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull are in the third row, with Nico Hulkenberg seventh and the best of the rest.
Ferrari is running an engine update in Montreal. Mercedes was expecting to do the same, but it wasn’t ready in time” they also decided to bring fewer sets of the softest tires.
“The numbers are just in theory, but there would have been gains,” Bottas said. “I think it would have been a close fight for the pole with the new engine. But we’re going to get it later anyway, so that’s all good.”
Vettel won the first two races of the year but did not return to the podium until his second-place finish in Monaco last race. The only thing slowing the German down on Saturday was a line of cars that interrupted his attempt at going even faster.
