Sebastian Vettel has secured pole position for the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix with a new track record of 1:10.764, which was just under a tenth faster than Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, who will start on the front row in second place. Max Verstappen qualified in what was an impressive third place for Red Bull, with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton starting tomorrow's race in fourth place after a rather poor Q3 session where he locked up both times going into turn 10.
Interestingly, the Red Bull drivers of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo (who qualified in sixth place) will start tomorrow's race on the hypersoft tyres. On the other hand, the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers will be starting the race on the ultrasoft tyres. One advantage of Red Bull's decision is the fact that they will have more grip at the start which could help them gain track position, though the downside of this is that making a one-stop strategy work will be slightly marginal as the hypersoft does tend to have quite high degradation, though if Red Bull do make this work, it could present them with a big opportunity. The advantage of Mercedes and Ferrari's decision is that doing a one-stop race will certainly be manageable (opening stint on the ultra-softs, then a switch onto the super-softs), as well as perhaps a bit more flexibility, however, it does mean that they might have just that little bit less grip at the start.
Another impressive thing of note was the Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc of Sauber qualifying ahead of both McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in what is on paper an inferior car (that of Leclerc. Meanwhile, Haas driver Romain Grosjean did not even manage to set a laptime in qualifying after an engine failure which occurred when he was going out of the pitlane.
Starting grid (still provisional):
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes
Carlos Sainz - Renault
Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Brendon Hartley - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Charles Leclerc - Sauber-Ferrari
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Renault
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Renault
Pierre Gasly - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes
Sergey Sirotkin - Williams-Mercedes
Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari