Qualifying duels after Canada | Verstappen increases lead over Perez

Max Verstappen has increased his lead in the mutual qualifying duel with Sergio Perez again. The Dutchman was faster in qualifying for the sixth time this season. Lewis Hamilton is already almost at par with teammate George Russell.

Verstappen was unprecedentedly fast on a drying track in Canada, while his teammate threw away his own qualifying by parking his RB18 in the wall. Perez had not been on par with Verstappen all weekend, so it is likely that the crash made little difference to the result between them.

At Ferrari, McLaren and AlphaTauri, the standings remained the same, Charles Leclerc and Yuki Tsunoda already knew prior to qualifying that they had a grid penalty and would start at the back. As a result, not much more than a banker-lap was driven by both drivers. Lando Norris had problems with his engine and therefore was unable to set a serious time in the second part of qualifying beyond his control.

George Russell took the gamble of trying to set a time on soft tires, something that led to a crash in Turn 2. This allowed Hamilton to catch up to his younger teammate again. Rookie Guanyu Zhou also narrowed his gap on his teammate Valtteri Bottas.

Red Bull Racing: Verstappen/Perez 6-3
Ferrari: Leclerc/Sainz 8-0
Mercedes: Hamilton/Russell 4-5
McLaren: Norris/Ricciardo 7-1
Alpine: Alonso/Ocon 6-2
AlphaTauri: Gasly/Tsunoda: 4-3
Aston Martin: Vettel/Stroll 6-1
Alfa Romeo: Bottas/Zhou 7-2
Haas F1: Magnussen/Schumacher 7-2
Williams: Albon/Latifi 8-0