Qualifying in the rain | Verstappen and Alonso by far the best

F1 drivers in the rain

In Formula 1, the boys are set apart from the men when it starts to rain. The best drivers of all time have excelled in these conditions because you simply have to be one with your car to get the fastest time out of it in the wet. The grip is different on every lap and any mistake is punished.

At the front of the grid, there are no strange differences when we look at the qualifying for the Grands Prix of Imola and Canada. Hamilton and Russell are 1-1 after two qualifying sessions in the rain. Hamilton had a bigger gap on Russell in Canada than he did in Imola, but that was mainly due to the young Briton's gamble of slicks.

Max Verstappen has little to fear from Sergio Perez in the rain. At the Grands Prix of Emilia Romagna and Canada he was faster in the wet, and by a good margin too. In Imola, the difference was almost two seconds and in Q1 in Canada Perez was also continuously more than a second behind his teammate.

Experience makes the difference

Charles Leclerc was not really in action in Montreal due to a grid penalty and Lando Norris also had problems showing his dominance over his teammate. Fernando Alonso was again faster than Esteban Ocon, and the Spaniard was twice over a second and a half faster than the Frenchman.

Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda are evenly matched, as is the case over a full season, while Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin did win twice over Lance Stroll. The Canadian has always been seen as a good rain driver, but against the four-time world champion that is not so bad.

Alexander Albon was out of action at Imola due to burnt brakes, but showed in Montreal that he is faster than Nicholas Latifi in the rain too. Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou are tied due to the Chinese driver's strong performance in Canada. Kevin Magnussen dominates Mick Schumacher in the rain too. Twice the Dane won with an average difference of 0.7s. So Mick does not (yet) have the 'rain genes' of his father.