Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

At Williams, the pattern is now set. They are definitively behind the top three, and - generally, on most circuits - just far enough ahead of Force India and McLaren to not worry about them too much just yet. Unless it is somewhere with lots of corners like Spain or Monaco. The battle, then, is usually an intra-team one, and while Felipe Massa leads on points after a steady, consistent season so far, Valtteri Bottas is now 6-1 up in qualifying. It should be 5-2 by rights after Canada. 

Massa said his heavy accident at the start of first practice, caused by a DRS problem, meant there were some parts missing from his car that added up to 0.2secs in pace - and chief engineer Rob Smedley backed him up. But even so he was just 0.099secs adrift, and was pleased as a result. "We understand other teams are in front of us," he said, "teams that we can understand have a lot more opportunity than us. It is not a negative thing; we are still doing a good job. We are in the fight. I am in trouble, missing pieces for my accident yesterday so I am very happy with my lap time. But I think we can do a good race and keep scoring good points."

Gareth Lewis: Full Vettel Jacket

Bipedal Tripod: The Brawn Inheritance

Alex Lawson: A Glockwork Orange

Tim Harding: Ferraris Buellers' day off

You're trying hard there, Tim. Perhaps a little too hard...

Jenson Button is hunched in his big coat, hopping on the spot to keep warm. The poor grid girls look frozen.  

Now then, there's a bit of rain falling now, with 20 minutes until lights out. We could be in for a very interesting start to this race.

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There's a good chance of the safety car making an appearance today, with 12 of the last 17 Canadian GPs having been safety car-affected.

It was at the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport back in 1973 that the safety car was first deployed in F1, making this race its spiritual home.

The run up to turn one on lap one at the Canadian Grand Prix is a short one. This means the cars are close heading into that left hander. Sometimes, they are a little too close - as Alexander Wurz found out in 1998. 

Image source, AP

Image source, Getty Images

Fissuh Hailu: Fast and furious Ricciardo  

Ben Richards: Formula 1 second left

Zack Attack: A series - Third rock from Magnussen

Theo Bowyer: The Hulkenberg

Send your F1 in movie titles to #bbcf1...

The pit lane is open and the cars are making their way round to the grid. 

Toto Wolff's hair was flowing magnificently a little earlier which can mean only one thing, the wind has picked up a bit.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Last year, there was nothing to choose between McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in qualifying; this year it is a very different story. After making it into the top 10 shoot-out for the third race in a row, Alonso is now 5-1 ahead, and Button also lost out to Stoffel Vandoorne when Alonso was out injured in Bahrain. To be fair, Button has looked strong in Canada all weekend, and it had been nip and tuck between them throughout - until the last lap, when as things transpired, Alonso benefited in the slipstream of his team-mate on the long straight. A tow, Alonso said, was worth 0.15-0.2secs. The gap between them in Q2? 0.177secs. Button was at pains to mention this disparity in his interviews afterwards - but then later posted on Instagram a picture of the lock-up he had into the hairpin before the long straight, with the caption: “Doh. There goes Q3.” Which rather suggested that was more influential than what came afterwards. Anyway, with McLaren leaning heavily towards promoting Stoffel Vandoorne as Alonso’s partner for 2017, Button could do with stemming the tide.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

McLaren came to Montreal thinking that continuing their run of making it into Q3 would be a stretch on this power circuit - but Fernando Alonso managed it for the third race in a row. With a little help from an inadvertent tow from team-mate Jenson Button. 

"It is a nice surprise," he said. "We did not expect to be in front of one Force India and 0.4secs behind Ferrari. This will push everyone at the factory, boost everyone in terms of motivation and hopefully we keep this development."

Feet on the ground, as ever, though, Alonso added: "It will be a long race for us, a lot of fuel saving but maybe we have some help from the weather."

Image source, Getty Images

The lowest grid position from which the Canadian Grand Prix has been won is 10th. That was achieved by Jacques Laffite for Ligier in 1981.

Fernando Alonso starts from 10th today. We can but hope...

BBC Radio 5 live commentator Jack Nicholls made a great spot on Friday withF1 in movie title suggestions doing the rounds on Twitter. We've been asking you to come up with more today via #bbcf1

Michael Chapman: Weekend at Bernie's

Paul Rimmo: Finding Timo  

Where is Mr Glock? Racing touring cars in his native Germany.

And what a great film Weekend at Bernie's is...

Image source, Mail on Sunday

An interesting claim in the Mail on Sunday, who say that Lewis Hamilton is being supported and advised in Montreal by former touring car and Formula Three driver Marc Hynes because the world champion 'has expressed his doubts about the independence of Mercedes F1 chairman Niki Lauda and team principal Toto Wolff'.

The paper quotes a 'paddock insider' who says: "Lewis has expressed his misgivings about Lauda and Wolff. You can call it paranoia but he has not been convinced that they are on his side."

The report adds: 'Rosberg, a multi-lingual German from Monaco, is thought to be the natural favourite among some figures within Mercedes.'