Hülkenberg loses front-row place for Canadian GP after rain-hit F1 qualifying

A Montreal downpour, followed by a conveniently-timed red flag saw Nico Hülkenberg qualify on the front row for the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix, only to find himself penalised for speeding under the very same red flag and dropped to fifth.

Fernando Alonso will now line up alongside polesitter Max Verstappen for the race, after changeable weather caught several teams out in qualifying; Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez were eliminated in a Q2 session that was topped by Alex Albon.

Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda also received penalties for impeding cars.

The final Q3 stage began with rain falling, and conditions continuing to worsen. So when Oscar Piastri lost his McLaren and spun into the barriers, triggering a red flag, there was no chance of drivers being able to improve their time when the session resumed.

Verstappen and Haas driver Hülkenberg, who set his time seconds before the red flag, headed Fernando Alonso — who had been about to complete a faster lap. Behind the Aston Martin were Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who survived an elimination scare in Q2 to clock another positive result for Mercedes.

“[They were] challenging conditions but we stayed on top of the situation,” said Hülkenberg who started on pole at the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix after a similarly changeable qualifying. “Good communication throughout and clean laps and hence we rewarded ourselves with this nice, sweet, quali result.”

That sweetness only lasted a few hours. Stewards found that Hülkenberg didn’t slow quickly enough when the red flag came out and imposed a three-place grid penalty.

The Haas driver had started a second flying lap, and was at Turn 1 when the session was suspended. At that point he should have slowed to a pre-determined lap time, which is split into different sectors of the lap.

A system of beeps, played through his earpiece warned that he was initially travelling too fast but Hülkenberg told stewards that he was confused and thought that he was actually travelling too slowly.

Although he then slowed to the correct speed for the rest of the lap, stewards imposed the penalty — reduced from the typical 10-place drop for the offence, noting that he had not been driving dangerously or unsafely.

Hülkenberg still starts well ahead of others who fell short over a qualifying session that was shaped by the weather from the start.

A drying track offered a small window for slick tyres in Q2, which Williams and Alex Albon spotted first. He set a searing pace for three laps before pitting as rain fell again.

Behind him, some teams fell apart in the changing conditions. While Verstappen switched early, team-mate Sergio Perez was later on to the slicks, as was Charles Leclerc. Both appeared to miss the window, pitting immediately for intermediate tyres without setting a time. But it was too late: Leclerc shouted over team radio that his tyres weren’t ready before going off track as he attempted in vain to make the final ten. Perez didn’t have the pace either, exiting Q2 with Lance Stroll who had spun his car on his first run and missed the opportunity for slicks.

When he did fit the soft tyres, Stroll was too worried to move off the dry racing line in case he crashed — as told to stewards — and was penalised three grid places for impeding Yuki Tsunoda.

The worsening conditions meant Albon topped the Q2 timesheet, ahead of Verstappen.

Q3, however, saw Albon lose out after his lap time was deleted when he ran over the kerb at the final corner. The red flag meant he had no chance to improve his lap time, leaving the Williams driver tenth, as Hülkenberg made the headlines.

If the Haas driver does hold on to his second place, he’s not expecting to see a clear track in front of him for long. “We’ll just take the moment now, enjoy it and fight as hard and do what we can tomorrow,” he said. “We’ve got to be realistic. We start from a good position, for sure. There’s gonna be a lot of heat from the back; there’s a lot of faster cars that will come through. Hopefully [we’ll finish] somewhere between P1 and 10”.

Q1

Q1 had begun with a wet track and all drivers on intermediate tyres. After a brief interruption, when Zhou Guanyu stopped his Alfa Romeo at the side of the track. Although he got going again, the session had already been stopped. When it resumed, there was a rush to set a time with further rain forecast.

Pierre Gasly lost out in the melee, as Carlos Sainz slowed before the final corner to drop behind other cars ahead of his flying lap. The Alpine driver had to swerve to avoid the Ferrari at high speed, cutting the corner, and ruining that, and the subsequent lap.

That incident cost him a three-place grid drop, while Yuki Tsunoda received the same penalty for getting in the way of Hülkenberg.

As well as Gasly, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda were eliminated at this stage.

Q2

Albon was the only driver to start Q2 on slicks, with a dry line visible on track and rain forecast towards the end of the session. He reaped the benefits — although not so quickly as to give rivals ample warning. As the first drivers switched to slicks, including Verstappen, the rain was already starting to fall, which led to panic among the later changers.

Leclerc had asked to change to slicks on his first Q2 lap, but was told to set a banker lap on intermediates, which likely cost him a Q3 place.

“We are quite often on the wrong side of making those decisions,” he told Sky Sports.

As rivals were switching tyres, Perez remained on intermediates.

Hamilton also nearly lost out as he stayed on intermediates, radioing his team to ask why all the other drivers were on slicks. He was sent out on soft tyres but then came straight back in for another set of intermediates and scraped through.

Q3

The changeable conditions were over by the start of Q3 as heavy cloud descended on the circuit, bringing rain — and no end in sight.

With conditions only expected to get worse, Verstappen ensured that he was out of the pitlane first, setting the fastest time as the track became wetter behind him.

Ocon followed him, and then came Hülkenberg who went second with a time that may have been more than 1sec slower, but still beat anybody who came after him.

There was still time to gain, however, as Alonso began a second flying lap and looked on course to claim a front row spot when Piastri lost the car at Turn 7 and slewed into the barrier.

Although drivers went back out after the restart, they were quickly back in, with no hope of improving their times.

2023 Canadian Grand Prix starting grid

*3-place grid penalty