Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Montreal

It's still drizzling, and a decidedly not toasty 12C at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as the clock ticks down towards qualifying.

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Daniel Ricciardo has had a difficult start to the 2022 season but Azerbaijan gave the McLaren driver a boost in confidence after finishing in the points for the first time since the Australian Grand Prix two months ago.

"It was definitely a better weekend, certainly smoother," said Ricciardo.

"It was good to see how we came out of Monaco, the work that was done since Monaco, it really translated well onto the track. Everything we found and understood, we showed good signs of that in Baku.

It’s not an easy circuit (Baku), the nature of it: low downforce street circuit, so to have a solid weekend there is encouraging."

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The story of qualifying three years ago in Canada was the performance of Daniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo made the huge decision to wave goodbye to Red Bull and join Renault for the 2019 season.

In Montreal, the Australian secured a brilliant fourth place for his new team and pipped Pierre Gasly - who replaced him at Red Bull - for the position.

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Kevin Magnussen is riding in the Haas once again, just like he was three years ago, but the Dane will not want a repeat of what happened at the end of Q2 that day.

With the clock ticking down to the end of the session, Magnussen smashed into the wall at the final chicane, propelling him across the track and crunching his car into a tangled heap.

Thankfully, Magnussen was OK, but due to the red flags, Max Verstappen in the Red Bull was just one of the drivers to miss out on the top 10 shootout.

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Welcome to Saturday, 8 June 2019.

We had the likes of Alex Albon and Daniil Kvyat driving for Toro Rosso, Robert Kubica in the Williams and 'Carlando' were in the early stages of their budding bromance over at McLaren.

Sebastian Vettel, in his Ferrari, beat Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes by 0.206 seconds. Vettel's former team-mate Charles Leclerc was third.

It was only the second time in seven races Mercedes had been beaten to pole, the other one taking place in Bahrain three months prior courtesy of Leclerc.

The big question following the session was: How are Ferrari suddenly quick again?

Have a read of the report to find out the full details

Shall we hop in the DeLorean, hit 88 miles per hour and travel back to 2019 for the last qualifying session in Montreal?

Does the thought of a wet qualifying excite Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and the rest of the team? "Yes, it does!" he tells Sky Sports. "We were looking a bit more competitive in this session on the heavy wets, so rather wet than dry."

On a down note, Wolff reiterates the Silver Arrows are just too far off the leaders. "We're in no man's land," he adds.

There seems to have been a bit of bother earlier on with drivers unable to get to the meet and greet session before today's third practice. Alpine, Mercedes and Ferrari have all tweeted their apologies to the fans that were waiting patiently in pouring rain.

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Sergio Perez is in the form of his career with Red Bull right now and the Mexican has his own little streak he would probably like to continue at the Canadian circuit on Saturday.

Perez has out-qualified team-mate Max Verstappen in back-to-back races and in Baku last weekend, he beat out the Dutchman with his final lap, by just 0.065secs.

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Charles Leclerc's pain is Max Verstappen's gain these days as the world champion benefited once again from his title rival's Sunday misery.

The Red Bull driver still only has one pole position to his name this season (and a sprint race win) and has experienced a few frustrating moments himself in qualifying this season, but heading the field as the lights go out doesn't seem to matter for the Dutchman... for now.

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One thing that Charles Leclerc has in his Ferrari locker this season is the ability to pull out a scintillating lap when it matters the most.

In Azerbaijan a week ago, despite some early errors, the Monegasque driver beat Red Bull's Sergio Perez by 0.282 seconds, while title rival Max Verstappen had to settle for a place on the second row in third.

Whatever happens today, Sunday will be full recovery mode for the 24-year-old due to starting at the back of the grid.

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Six pole positions in eight races for Charles Leclerc - with four of them in a row - but only two victories to show for his efforts.

If he does claim another today, he will equal his record of seven front-row spots in a season, which he achieved during his first year with Ferrari in 2019.

During that campaign, like the early part of this season, Leclerc only converted two of those poles into grands prix wins.

Sadly, pole position today would only be a statistical achievement for Leclerc. He will, of course, be starting from the back of the grid on Sunday whatever happens courtesy of those changes to his Ferrari engine.

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BBC weatherman Ian Fergusson, what have you got for us...

Charles Leclerc has found some plus points for Ferrari to work on after his series of blows lately. "The pace," said the Monegasque. "The pace in general is the positive.

"It's hard to take that three races in a row with problems or mistakes but as a team, I think we are working extremely hard and we will try and work to try and get on top of those things as soon as possible.

"We just want to take get back to winning as quickly as possible."

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Montreal

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Charles Leclerc has suffered an 80-point swing in favour of title rival Max Verstappen after a series of recent problems.

And he is now likely to lose further ground to the Red Bull driver in Montreal.

Leclerc led Verstappen by 46 points after two victories and a second place from the first three races, from two of which the Dutchman retired.

But Leclerc has suffered two engine failures in the last three races, both times when he was in the lead.

He also lost victory in the Monaco Grand Prix after a Ferrari strategy bungle dropped him from the lead to fourth, while a spin in the closing stages of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix turned a third place into sixth.

The headline news in that final running was Charles Leclerc's grid penalty for excessive engine usage.

Ferrari have fitted a third electronics control unit at the Canadian Grand Prix, triggering an automatic 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's race.

Teams may use only two electronics units per driver per season.

The Ferrari driver will join Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda at the rear of the field tomorrow as the the Japanese racer has also taken new power unit elements this weekend.

Here are the full times from third practice for you to look over if you're just joining us tonight.

Hi folks.

All systems go for what could be a bit of a bonkers qualifying session, with conditions being less than ideal for a flat out, pole position scrap.

Q1 will go green at 21:00 BST, with full commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra at 20:55 BST.

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Fernando Alonso has just topped third practice in the wet.

His last pole position came in July 2012 at the German Grand Prix. In the wet.

The rainy weather isn't budging in Montreal, so...

Maybe another one today to mark nearly 10 years since the last one?