McLaren’s Oscar Piastri saw the positives of his first Canadian Grand Prix qualifying session despite crashing on Saturday.

The Australian hit the barrier in wet conditions in the opening stages of the third and final session having gone ninth in Montreal, but by virtue of a penalty for Carlos Sainz, he will start the race eighth on Sunday afternoon.

The collision caused a red flag which was followed by heavier rain, ultimately preventing anyone from improving on their previous best lap times. Team-mate Lando Norris will start the race seventh.

READ MORE: Hulkenberg penalised, Alonso up to front row

While Piastri was slightly disappointed at his crash, he remained upbeat.

“I think overall [I’m] reasonably happy,” he said. “Obviously a shame to end the way it did but I’m not sure how much further up we could have got to be honest. So, not too disappointed.

“Obviously disappointed in myself for causing extra work for the mechanics and stuff so apologies to the team but to have both of us in Q3 again is really encouraging. And I really enjoyed my first quali session in Canada; it certainly threw everything it could at us.”

Neither McLaren car finished in the points in a tough afternoon in Barcelona a fortnight ago, and Piastri and Norris ended the dry second practice session 11^th and 13^th respectively on Friday.

In what are expected to be dry conditions in the race, Piastri is optimistic over his and Norris’ chances of remaining in the top 10.

“We’re certainly hoping it will be better,” explained Piastri. “We’ll see what the weather does tomorrow as well. I think our pace on Friday in the dry was pretty strong in all honesty so I think we can have a degree of confidence. Obviously we don’t want to overestimate ourselves too much but I think we can definitely try and fight for points.”

This weekend is the third time in 2023 that both McLaren drivers have started the grand prix in the top 10.

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Red Bull boss Christian Horner feels that Ferrari is his team’s biggest challenger in Canada this weekend.

Charles Leclerc finished second behind Max Verstappen in a wet third and final practice session ahead of qualifying on Saturday, while the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz had been running in the top three before crashing out with a little under half an hour to go in FP3.

The lead Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was third while Lewis Hamilton, having topped FP2 on Friday, was 10th as George Russell set a time good enough for 16th.

READ MORE: Verstappen leads Leclerc during wet FP3 in Canada

Both Mercedes and Ferrari got two drivers into the top five on Friday afternoon in dry conditions, with the Scuderia the only team to do so on Saturday morning.

Horner feels that it is the Italian side that poses the biggest threat to the reigning Constructors’ Champion’s chances of success come Sunday’s race.

“I think Ferrari,” he told Sky F1 when asked whom he sees as the biggest threat this weekend. “I think their car here looks competitive; I think Aston look like they’re there or thereabouts in that session. Mercedes looked like they were struggling to be generating tyre temperature. So, it does seem to be moving from circuit to circuit.”

The other Red Bull of Sergio Perez could only wound up 17th in the third practice session, over two seconds off the pace of Verstappen.

Horner, however, did not seem concerned by Perez’s placing in FP3, asserting that the Mexican will bounce back later in qualifying.

“I think just give him the data and he’ll be looking at that now with his engineer in the build-up to quali,” explained Horner. “He’d never got the tyres in the second half of the session in the right window. At the beginning of the session, he was running fine so the time I’m not worried about in P3. I think that will naturally converge.

“We know Checo is pretty decent in the wet. What Max seems to be exceptional at – a bit like Fernando – is generating tyre temp really quickly [in an] aggressive style. And suddenly, the car just comes into a window where it just works.”

Saturday’s qualifying session, similar to the practice earlier in the day, is expected to be run in wet conditions.

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Max Verstappen went quickest in the third final practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix on a wet Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

READ MORE: Verstappen leads Leclerc during wet FP3 in Canada

Verstappen beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to the fastest lap, with the Monegasque’s team-mate Carlos Sainz crashing in the latter half of the session having set a lap that would ultimately prove good enough for fifth.

Lewis Hamilton was the highest-placed Mercedes in 10th, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez struggled to 17th. The rain is expected to persist heading into qualifying later on Saturday.

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Lewis Hamilton went quickest in a rain-affected second practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton led Mercedes team-mate George Russell to top spot ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. A solid showing from Valtteri Bottas saw him finish seventh ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Showers at the end of the 90 minutes brought an end to meaningful running.

READ MORE: Hamilton heads Mercedes 1-2 in extended Canada FP2

Both Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon came to a halt with mechanical problems on their respective Haas and Alpine cars. Ocon’s team-mate Pierre Gasly had already been forced to stop with a problem of his own in FP1.

The drivers had an extra half an hour to work with in FP2 owing to a CCTV problem earlier on Friday that ruined the scheduled running.

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2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button has indicated that Max Verstappen may need to race outside of the series if he is to be considered the greatest driver.

Button took part in the 24 Hours of Spa in 1999 and, after his 17-year F1 spell came to an end in 2016, he returned to endurance racing.

The 15-time F1 race winner contested the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2018 having come back to F1 for a one-off appearance at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix, and he is in the infamous French race again this weekend with the Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR entry.

READ MORE: Verstappen suggests Ferrari switch would be ‘dream’ F1 move

He tried his hand in the NASCAR cup series earlier this year alongside Kimi Raikkonen, who himself has sporadically taken part in American stock racing and rallying during a career that saw him win the F1 title in 2007.

Verstappen has won the title in each of the last two years and currently leads the way in 2023. The first of his 40 wins in the pinnacle of motorsport arrived in Barcelona seven years ago at just 18 years old.

The Dutchman is already widely recognised as one of the greatest racing drivers in the world, but Button thinks there is something in the argument that F1 drivers need to prove themselves elsewhere to go down as greats.

“There’s every possibility that Max [Verstappen] could go down as the greatest but I like the idea that you can’t be the best driver in the world if you haven’t stepped outside of F1,” he told The Times.

Button, Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Mario Andretti are just a few names in a copious list of F1 drivers who have transcended the sport and raced in alternative series or disciplines.

Button used his former McLaren team-mate Alonso, who currently races with Aston Martin in F1, as an example of a driver who has succeeded elsewhere and displayed notable longevity.

“Fernando has done a phenomenal job,” added the 43-year-old. “He left F1 and came and raced in Le Mans and Daytona, won both, then won Le Mans again. I don’t think his performance has dropped away in his forties.”

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FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has called for cars to become lighter when the next set of technical regulations come around in 2026.

In a major shake-up to Formula 1’s regulations that saw the return of ground effect aerodynamics last year, the minimum weight of the cars increased to nearly 800kg.

Currently, the cars are over 150kg heavier than they were a decade ago, and weigh nearly 200kg more than in 2008 – the year before the first energy recovery system, KERS, was introduced.

READ MORE: ‘Half a chance that Norris could look to join Alpine’

The new aero package, coupled with the heavy hybrid systems in the current V6 turbo-hybrid power units, has contributed to an astronomic increase in weight in recent years.

Ben Sulayem, who himself competed as a rally driver, feels that the current formula does not lend itself to safety or fuel economy. Therefore, he suggests an alteration when the rules change again in three years.

“One thing I would like to see is very clear: we need a lighter car,” he told Motorsport.com.

“I believe this is better. I come from motorsport, where lighter cars are safer and they won’t use the same amount of fuel.  

“It will be hard to achieve, but everybody wants it. So I am pushing because I come from rallying, where nothing is worse than having a heavy car.” 

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali agreed that the increasing weight may not be sustainable going forward.

“One of the points that has always been a debate has been the weight,” said the former Ferrari boss. “As you know, with the hybrid engines, with the batteries, the weight is getting higher and that is something that is not really in the nature of F1. So, it’s a topic for discussion for the future.”

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The Belgian Grand Prix is set to remain on the Formula 1 calendar for at least another year after plans to hold the South African Grand Prix hit a snag, according to various reports.

South Africa’s “warm” relationship with Russia has reportedly deterred F1 from agreeing a deal to once more hold a race at the Kyalami Circuit.

F1 terminated its contract with the Russian Grand Prix last year over its invasion and subsequent war with Ukraine, saying it is “impossible” to hold a race in the country in the current climate.

READ MORE: Verstappen: Red Bull can’t get complacent amid dominance

The FIA decreed that all racing drivers from Russia and Belarus, which is aiding Vladimir Putin’s war efforts, must race under a neutral flag. It also banned Russian sponsors and logos from appearing at any FIA-sanctioned event.

The Kyalami Circuit has played host to 20 championship F1 grands prix, the last of which was won by Alain Prost in 1983.

There were initial talks between organisers and F1’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali, to add the country to the calendar this year, but the track was not yet ready to host an F1 race.

Its return would have been at the expense of the Belgian Grand Prix at the historic Spa Francorchamps Circuit.

Now, South Africa’s political standing with Russia seems to have put a grand prix on hold further, and there will be no race in the country until at least 2025.

It means that Spa will likely be given a further one-year extension, taking the infamous track to 57 championship races by next year.

Max Verstappen won last year’s race in Stavelot from 14th on the grid en route to his second consecutive world title.

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Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso says he went beyond the limit during qualifying as he secured a spot on the front row of the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Spaniard looked set for his first pole position since Germany 2012 in the dying moments of Q3 on Saturday, before a rapid final sector from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen gave the Dutchman his first-ever pole in the Principality.

Despite seeing pole snatched from his grasp though, Alonso was happy with his day’s work.

READ MORE: Verstappen takes Monaco pole as Perez suffers Q1 crash

“You never know here in Monaco,” he said. “As Max said anything can happen, always a couple of incidents, yellows, red. Better to put a lap on the board and be at the front. When they told me I was P1 – just [Yuki] Tsunoda and Max completing the laps – I knew the possibility was there to be P2. But yeah I think even if it feels very close the pole position we have to be happy.

“We came here with some concerns about our performance on Saturdays, we seem very god on Sundays and taking care of the tyres, degradation is good on our car. But we struggle a bit on street circuits to put the temperature to hit the lap in Q3 but we are starting the first row of the grid in Monaco so I think it’s job done today.”

Alonso drew attention the time he lost to Verstappen in the final sector, adding that this has been the team’s most problematic area over the weekend.

“I don’t think so,” he said when asked if he tried a different approach in qualifying. “I think both laps in Q3 we were increasing the level of risk to an uncomfortable level let’s say I think both laps were a little bit over the limit sometimes but everything went fine.

“The last sector seems our weakest part of the circuit, I think already in FP3, we were eighth quickest I think there. So maybe there is something going on there we need to analyse a bit, maybe going into Singapore is the next opportunity we have.”

15 championship races in Monaco have been won from second on the grid, and it has turned out to be a more virtuous starting spot than pole in the last 10 years.

The two-time champion said it was “great” statistic to hear, and a race win is certainly not off the table going into Sunday’s race.

“Let’s see, it’s a long race,’ explained Alonso. “I don’t think overtaking opportunities will come at all as it is Monaco.

“But it is a very demanding race on the car, on the gearbox, on the brakes. There’s a lot of things to take care of over 78 laps so we have to focus, concentrate, be sharp on pit stop, strategy. Anything can happen; if an opportunity comes we will take it.”

Having not taken a race win since 2013, Alonso is pleased that newer fans of Formula 1 can now see him competing at the front.

“It feels great. I always had self-confidence on what I could do in terms of driving, over confidence sometimes but that’s part of my DNA probably.

“But it is a proof maybe for people outside, they were a lot of new fans, maybe coming as well from 2014 or 15 or DTS or all these things that they only saw me fighting for Q3 or something like that, or retiring from the race with some smoke at the back.

“Now I think they are surprised that they see me fighting toward a bit the front, for me it’s okay, I’m enjoying, but it is more enjoyable that new fans can see that we are fast.”

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Max Verstappen led a Red Bull one-two in the final practice session ahead of qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton ended the session in the wall.

The Dutchman beat team-mate Sergio Perez to top spot by less than a tenth of a second on Saturday morning, ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Carlos Sainz went fourth fastest, with McLaren’s Lando Norris behind in fifth. Pierre Gasly set a lap good enough for sixth in his Alpine ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was unhappy with the ride of his car. 

READ MORE: F1 2023 Monaco GP – FP3 Results

Hamilton had set the eighth fastest lap for Mercedes before he lost control of his car at Mirabeau, putting it in the barrier and bringing out the red flag.

Esteban Ocon recovered from a momentary stoppage in the tunnel after an issue to finish ninth, with Valtteri Bottas rounding out the top 10.

George Russell was 11^th in the second Mercedes while Kevin Magnussen, whose session ended early due to a problem of his own, went 12^th fastest ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.

Fernando Alonso did not set a representative time as he finished 14^th, and his final effort was thwarted by the red flag caused by Hamilton’s incident. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda took P15 ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.

The two Williams cars of Logan Sargeant and Alex Albion were 17^th and 18^th respectively, while Oscar Piastri finished 19^th. Nyck de Vries was 20^th and last for AlphaTauri.

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Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have acknowledged the strong pace of their rivals after Friday’s practice sessions in Monaco.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz went quickest in the opening session of the day, while Perez and Verstappen ended up fourth and sixth respectively.

The reigning World Champion gave his team some momentum by topping FP2, half a second clear of Perez who set a lap good enough for seventh.

READ MORE: Verstappen heads Ferrari drivers in Monaco FP2

Verstappen edged out Charles Leclerc by less than a tenth late in the afternoon, and with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both impressing for Mercedes and Aston Martin respectively, pole position and the race win may be hotly contested.

Verstappen said after practice that there is “a little bit of scope” for improvement heading into qualifying on Saturday, adding that the Ferrari looks more settled than the Red Bull at present.

“I think FP1 was quite tricky,” he explained. “I was not really happy with the ride of the car on the kerbs and the bumps. FP2 was already a lot better, the car felt more competitive. 

“Compared to Ferrari especially we’re still a bit lacking on the general ride of the car, how it handles the kerbs, the bumps,. the drops in camber. That’s still something we need to work on for tomorrow because you can see they are very, very close and knowing that one you go to the limit in qualifying we need a bit more to stay ahead of them.”

Expanding on Aston Martin’s pace, Verstappen said: “They’re close as well so we definitely need to build a little bit more of a buffer if we want to be ahead of them tomorrow.”

Perez elucidated that he and his team have work to do overnight to find some more pace heading into qualifying.

“It wasn’t a great day today in terms of pace in the car,” said the Mexican. “FP1 went a little bit better than FP2. 

“With the changes that we did we have plenty of things to review for tomorrow. I just need to sit down with the boys and go through it and try to pick up the best bits out there because every millisecond here is going to make a difference. They are little things, there’s nothing standing out at the moment.”

The 33-year-old added that qualifying will be a “real challenge” and an “interesting session” as multiple drivers set their sights on pole.

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