Max Verstappen spins Fernando Alonso shines as rain threatens qualifying shake-up

Canadian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen spins Fernando Alonso shines as rain threatens qualifying shake-up

Rain disrupted final practice for the Canadian Grand Prix

Ian Parkes

Saturday 18 June 2022 20:06 Updated: 20:55

Max Verstappen was one of a number of drivers to suffer in the wet conditions that dominated final practice for the Canadian Grand Prix at the end of which Fernando Alonso topped the timesheet.

Rain had fallen steadily from mid-morning onwards and it is also set to disrupt the qualifying session at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villenueve, threatening a shake-up of the order if the times in FP3 are an indicator.

Alonso led the way with a lap of one minute 33.836secs followed by AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel in his Aston Martin, both five-hundredths of a second back.

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But there were mistakes aplenty, notably from Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen who endured a spin late on across the grass, coming to a halt before a barrier.

The Dutch driver finished ninth with a late lap, 0.780s adrift, after threatening to sit in the bottom three with just seconds remaining.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen set the initial exploratory time in the 1:41s, with the leading time eight seconds faster as the drivers gradually grew accustomed to the conditions.

As to be expected, there were numerous mistakes, with drivers predominantly driving off track at turns one and 14, with additional errors at three and nine.

Unsurprisingly, many of the leading lights remained in the garage for as long as they reasonably dared, with Lewis Hamilton only venturing out with 33 minutes remaining.

Remarkably, Verstappen was the last out with only 25 minutes left on the clock, only setting a time inside the final 10 minutes prior to his spin on the intermediate tyres when full wets seemed the order of the day.

Bar five installation laps, Charles Leclerc sat on the sidelines and failed to post a time, and it remains to be seen if he will set a lap in qualifying given the forecast for the race is dry.

Leclerc, along with AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda, will both start at the back of the grid due to a power unit change, rendering qualifying laps meaningless.

Behind Vettel, Alonso's team-mate Esteban Ocon was fourth fastest, followed by McLaren pair Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris ahead of Mercedes' George Russell, Sergio Perez and Verstappen.

Like Verstappen, Perez was also late on track, and late also in posting a respectable time.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz completed the top 10, nearly a second down, while Hamilton, normally so proficient in the wet, was a lowly 15th, almost two seconds off the pace.