Saturday Report: 2023 Canadian GP

Calm heads in challenging conditions net Team solid qualifying result

Lewis Hamilton qualified P4 and George Russell P5 for the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix.
Wet conditions persisted throughout FP3 with Lewis and George both struggling with tyre temperature finishing P10 and P15 respectively.
The rain returned for qualifying and after making it through Q1, both drivers produced laps good enough to advance from Q2 as the downpours intensified.
In Q3, Lewis and George set times good enough for P4 and P5 on their first push laps before the red flag flew.
No further improvements were possible as the rain became heavier as the session restarted, netting the Team its best qualifying result since Australia.

Free Practice 3

Lewis Hamilton	20 Laps	1':5.087	P10
George Russell	20 Laps	1:25.435	P15

Qualifying

Q1

Lewis Hamilton	12 Laps	1:21.554	P3	Inters
George Russell	12 Laps	1:21.798	P4	Inters

Q2

George Russell	8 Laps	1:20.098	P10	Inters, Soft, Inter
Lewis Hamilton	9 Laps	1:20.426	P7	Inters, Soft, Inter

Q3

Lewis Hamilton	5 Laps	1:27.627	P4	Inters, Inters
George Russell	5 Laps	1:27.893	P5	Inters, Inters

Lewis Hamilton

That was a good result for us today. The conditions were very difficult out there as we tried to get temperature into the tyres. It was very tricky keeping it on track and delivering when it counted. I think P4 was probably the best we could have done though so overall, I’m really happy with it. We will take it and hopefully we can move forward tomorrow.

I hope we can compete with Fernando (Alonso) and if so, I think a podium is on the cards. It would be good to have a battle with him. Our race pace is often better than our single lap pace and hopefully that’s the case tomorrow.

George Russell

We did a great job to get both cars into Q3 today. I enjoyed the session as the track was changing every lap and you were driving on instincts. We didn’t quite get it together in Q3 but P5 has exceeded our expectations coming into qualifying. As a team, we were performing better as the track was drying and when the rain came in Q3, we struggled again. That’s the challenge of these conditions though, it makes it exciting, and I’m pleased we kept it on the circuit.

I believe we can fight for a podium from P5 tomorrow. We saw what we did from P12 in Barcelona, so we are satisfied with today; it’s our best qualifying result since Australia. Fernando is going to be our main target and we’re looking forward to the race.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

Today was a good result for the Team. The margins were very small between most of the field, and you could see that in Q2 with Perez and Leclerc being knocked out. I think we can therefore be satisfied with getting two cars through to Q3. You could see the improvements on the second lap in Q3 from Verstappen and Hulkenberg, which did make a difference. Overall though, I think we had good speed considering this is a circuit that isn’t a strong track for us and that it was raining. Realistically, we will be aiming for the podium with both cars tomorrow. We will give everything to challenge for more, but we will see on Sunday.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

That was a really tricky session, but both the Team and drivers did a great job to come away with P4 and P5. The conditions were constantly changing so making sure you were on the right tyre at the right time wasn’t easy; we were also seeing degradation on the intermediates so getting through the first session on a single set wasn’t straightforward.

In the second session there was a narrow window in which some cars were managing to get the slicks to work. That meant we had a nervous few minutes with Lewis hovering around the cut. Luckily, our forecast was correct and the weather worsened, so no one could improve. The laps in Q3 were good; with hindsight going earlier and getting a second push would have been optimum given the timing of the red flag and weather. Nevertheless, we can’t be too unhappy with both cars in the top-five at the end of a very difficult sessions.

We’re looking forward to the race tomorrow and aiming to get both cars on the podium. It’s normally good fun here and quite likely we’ll see a range of strategies, so it should be an interesting Grand Prix.