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Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

On the first day here in Canada on Thursday, Lewis Hamilton was expressing his concerns about the potential ramifications of Mercedes being forced to delay the introduction of their upgraded, second engine while their rivals all have theirs.

He was “just hoping for reliability and then hopefully I can try to make the difference on the track with my driving”.

The roots of this lie in the fact that a) the upgraded engines are all a small performance improvement; and b) his engine is now on its seventh race and all engines degrade over time.

The differences are small, but they just might be enough to make a decisive difference. Ferrari have had a small pace advantage, of 0.045secs on average, in qualifying so far this year.

The improvement on the Renault engine is said to be in the region of 10bhp, Ferrari perhaps a little less - or about 0.1-0.15secs or so. An engine degrades by less than 10bhp over its life. So that’s a potential difference in the balance of power - so to speak - over the previous races of 10-20bhp. That is in the region of 0.2-0.3secs Hamilton has make up with his driving to be on pole.

Image source, Getty Images

Anyway, for those of us not gazing longingly into each other's eyes over a candlelit meal, qualifying is but moments away.

Chris Marsh: My wife tricked me into having a romantic evening and missing quali! Predictions: Lewis on pole, Seb second, Perez third. Max to wall it in Q2, Danny Ric to have MGU failure and Kimi to just have a bad session.

I really want to know how your wife tricked you into having a romantic evening, Chris. Hope both of you have a lovely time, anyway!

The constructors' championship reflects a three-way dominance this season. Sports forecasting can make fools of us all, but on Friday's evidence, I would be amazed if Williams add to their four points this weekend.

Image source, BBC Sport

Here's how they stand in the championship race going into the weekend. Sebastian Vettel is 14 points behind Lewis Hamilton, having gone four grands prix without a win. Daniel Ricciardo, victorious in the most boring race ever in Monaco last time out, could very quickly haul himself into the title running with a couple more triumphs.

Image source, BBC Sport

Qualifying starts in just under 30 minutes - so you've just got time to get the washing in, nip out for an ice cream, walk the dog, get the dog's washing in, or whatever fun things you get up to on a Saturday evening.

Kayleigh: So apparently I thought it would be a good idea to go for a cheeky Nando’s during qualifying! So getting my prediction in now - Ver, Vet, Ham. Both McLaren into Q3, Bottas top 5.

Chandramohan Satpute: Pole for Vettel.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner on Max Verstappen this week: "Max arrived in F1 very quickly and he is doing his learning in a very public arena.

"Most guys will have gone through this in the lower formulae and he is having to deal with it in a very public arena and I am sure he will emerge on the other side."

Verstappen has certainly had to do his growing up very publicly.

Image source, Getty Images

Jennifer Harris: My prediction for pole today? Danny Ric.

Inge: Re: 18:09. I am with the third groundhog. Can we see Nigel Mansell?

I think the third groundhog has the public vote, Inge.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is famous for a number of things - its challenge, the great racing, the picturesque backdrop - and another is its groundhogs.

The rodents - a kind of marmot - often pop up on television beside the track, and can sometimes be seen running for their lives in front of Formula 1 cars.

On Friday, one of them misjudged it and was collected by Romain Grosjean’s Haas, destroying both animal and front wing. The Frenchman was not amused. "It was a big impact,” he said. “It was a big animal.

"It’s a bit disappointing because they showed it on TV before the beginning of the session at Turn 13, and that's exactly where I hit it. I'm surprised they didn't move it.

"It's a shame for the animal, of course, and it's a shame for our front wing as well. We are quite limited on spare parts, and losing a front wing like this is a bit disappointing. It felt like a big impact. If that happens to you in the race, your race is over - the damage was quite big.”

After Friday's session, F1 sent a person dressed in a groundhog costume down to see Grosjean and he was smiling about it, although whether the incident was a laughing matter is obviously a matter of opinion.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Just asked these three groundhogs for their pole predictions. The one on the left has gone for Max Verstappen. The one in the middle thinks it will be Lewis Hamilton. The one on the right asked if Nigel Mansell's still racing, and then went off to munch on some grass. So, divided opinion, it's fair to say.

This is your one-hour warning: Qualifying gets under way at 19:00 BST. Will the weekend pick up for Fernando Alonso? He did not have a good third practice session, finishing 13th, and there has been plenty of talk that this season might be his last in F1.

The McLaren driver is keeping his cards close to his chest, but in an interview with BBC Sport, had this to say about the current state of the sport.

"It's obviously the top series in motorsport, and it's where we all dream to come, but it's true that in the last years it is so predictable.

"This is race seven - there are 21 races - and we all know what is going to happen. You can play basketball, and have a magic night and score 40 points with your team-mates and win the game.

"There are favourites for the World Cup, but you can't guarantee Germany, Spain or Brazil will win, but here everyone can guarantee that Mercedes or Ferrari will win the race, and this is very sad for the sport."

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

About 25 minutes ago, I asked for someone to defend Max Verstappen. Jacob Smith has stepped up:

Jacob Smith: Really do think Verstappen is being a rough ride by people. He’s nowhere near as dangerous as Maldonado was. Most of his DNFs last season were reliability issues. He’s just trying too hard,. One clean race and he will begin to settle down.

Josh Gribby: I think we'll see a Hamilton lap in Q3 which will take him on pole. Echoing Andrew Benson's comments - this is a circuit he loves. P1 Hamilton, P2 Vettel, P3 Verstappen for me.

Kayleigh: Pretty confident a Max pole today will get him out of this funk!

Hamilton is still the driver to watch out for in qualifying - but it will be hard to take our eyes off Max Verstappen. He has never had a pole position in 66 grands prix. There's a sense that, perhaps, he still has a point to prove here. Maybe, though, he is ready to prove that point. A good qualifying session would go a long way towards doing that.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Now, Mercedes perhaps don’t look in that great shape before qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton down in fourth place in final practice. But remember that this is Hamilton and Montreal.

The world champion has always excelled at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and has six wins and six poles - including the past three in a row - here in 10 races. His average advantage over his team-mates on this track is something like 0.5secs. So it would be foolish to rule him out.

Why is he so good here? It is to do with the particularities of his talent and this track. The circuit rewards great feel for braking and corner entry, because of the number of stops from high speed into slow-ish corners. And braking and corner entry is where Hamilton excels - he brakes late, comes off the brakes earlier, and can carry more speed while sliding the car and balancing brakes and throttle into the apex than other drivers.

He does it through an incredible feeling for the front and rear tyres, and the limits of their grip while under slip. It boils down to talent, but a particular aspect to it.

Image source, EPA

I can't be bothered to type out all the times from third practice. (Fine, give me the thumbs down.) However, if you have a magnifying glass, you can pick out all the relevant details on this rather handy tweet from Renault.

It's fair to say that, as well as Max Verstappen has done in practice in Canada, some of you are still far from convinced by him...

Jennifer Harris: OK, in Monaco: 2nd in all practice sessions until he crashed. In Canada: 1st in all practice sessions. Red Bull have pulled him up before he can make an idiot of himself again. Who's laying bets on how far he gets through qualifying before he hits a barrier?

Kuntal Majumdar: A tenner on Verstappen crashing in Q1 then. Im surprised he has not crashed OR headbutted someone so far.

It's all about opinions - so does anyone want to defend Verstappen?

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Mercedes did not use the hypersoft tyres on Friday, which accounted for at least some and probably all of the margin between Lewis Hamilton and the absolute pace.

Even if Mercedes plan to get through second qualifying on the ultrasoft so they can start on it - and they probably do - it would have made sense in an ideal world to try at least one set of hypers on Friday to get a sense of the car balance on it.

But this was not an ideal world. The tyre picks are made several weeks before race race and Mercedes have chosen to have only five sets of hypers here. No other team have fewer than seven.

Mercedes wanted to keep four sets for qualifying - two for the top 10 shoot-out and two to cover all possible scenarios. So with only five in total, and a need to run a set in final practice, they could not use any on Friday. Not perhaps what they would have wanted in hindsight but it was what it was.