Jennie Gow
BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter in Montreal

Yesterday we had all those swimming pool conditions. We have seen some really heavy rain in Montreal this week and cold temperatures.

That means we have a really topsy-turvy grid with some people not being able to benefit from the drying track.

Today, the sun is shining and the flags are rippling.

Charles Leclerc, the man who is trying to chase that huge deficit now to try and catch up with the leader Max Verstappen, is 34 points behind him having been 46 ahead after round three.

He starts on the back row after taking a new engine so let's see how much he can fight back.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Charles Leclerc's day was done and dusted after placing 15th in Q1, as the Ferrari driver opted not to go forward with the next session due to his grid drop for excessive engine usage.

"It was nice to do some push laps in the wet, obviously without taking too much risk because I could not damage the car for tomorrow," said Leclerc. "But overall, it’s been OK - and the feeling was good so it’s always nice."

From his position in P19, he needs to get past the Williams of Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin first, then it will be a battle with his former Scuderia team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who starts P16.

Jack: Answer the following questions on bbcf1: The race winner will be: Verstappen, Fernando Alonso will finish:3rd, Charles Leclerc will end the day in 6th place, Happiest team boss will be: Horner

Image source, Reuters

With Lewis Hamilton starting fourth on the grid today - his best qualifying position this season - what chance do you give the Mercedes driver of adding to his podium tally score on the Montreal stats graphic?

Hit the up thumb for, 'it's Canada - he's definitely going to secure a podium place'.

Or, tap the down thumb for, 'sorry, that car still looks dodgy. Not today'.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has been a fruitful place for these two seven-time world champions.

Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher are level on pole positions and race wins but the German driver just edges the Mercedes man when it comes to podium appearances.

Image source, Getty Images

Hamilton heads the stats for points claimed at the Canadian track (185). However, it is Sebastian Vettel who slots into second place on that list with 166 points won, 48 more than his great friend and mentor Schumacher.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Montreal

Image source, Getty Images

An interesting day at Mercedes on Saturday. Lewis Hamilton produced his best qualifying performance of the season to take fourth on the grid behind Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. For a long time, though, it looked as if the seven-time champion would be behind his team-mate, as George Russell excelled in the wet conditions and was consistently ahead of Hamilton until he made a gamble too far in trying slicks for his final run.

The risk backfired. The track was too wet still - particularly at Turns One and Two - and Russell slithered into the slowest of spins as he tried to begin his lap.

“I want to fight for pole and I am not here to settle for P3 or P4,” Russell said. “We had a good car and I saw the dry line appearing and it only takes one corner to let you down and fort me it was Turns One and Two. It happened last year in Sochi when I was one of three drivers to go from inters to slicks and I qualified P3 with the Williams. It was high risk-high reward. It didn’t pay off.

“In hindsight I should have pitted at the end of the out lap for inters. I realised it was going to be very tricky but it might have been the one. Glad I went for it because it could have paid off and P8 is not the end of the world. I would have regretted it more had I qualified p3 or p4 and not tried it.”

Team boss Toto Wolff said: “It could have been a hero moment. It wasn’t, but you’ve got to go for it.”

That left the way clear for Hamilton to be the lead Mercedes driver, and his reaction said a lot about his season so far. We are still struggling with the car, on pure pace in the dry we are still a long way off. So to get top four in those conditions is awesome. It is my best qualifying this season and feels similar to my first-ever qualifying in Australia in 2007, in terms of the excitement.”

Hamilton said he and Russell had again made different set-up choices - Hamilton going for a lower-downforce wing for better race-ability; Russell for a bigger wing for more performance in the wet. “For a small potential gain in qualifying, that’s the direction George went and I prepared for tomorrow,” he said. “I’m hoping it’s the right one and gives me the best race car.”

Image source, Getty Images

Following Friday's practice session, Lewis Hamilton gave a frank interview where he outlined the many issues with the 2022 Mercedes car. "Nothing we seem to do with this car seems to work," conceded the seven-time world champion.

So, it came as a bit of a shock to Hamilton when his Silver Arrow found some accuracy on Saturday and eventually nestled itself in fourth place for today's Canadian Grand Prix.

He said: "P4 has never felt so good to be honest.

"Maybe when I was like in my first year of racing, my first year here in 2007 when I got my first P4 in quali, it felt great then. I think this kind of feels like that, but particularly because it’s been a really, really difficult year."

George Russell put it all on red as the track conditions dried out in qualifying yesterday but unfortunately for the Mercedes man, his gamble didn't pay out.

Russell said his switch to the dry-weather slick tyres was the team's only chance to get pole position. "Today was high risk, high reward," he added. "It was literally just Turn One. Had that been as dry as the other corners, we could have been in a really good place."

Instead, the 24-year-old will slot into eighth spot behind the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, with McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo just behind.

Thanks, Philippa and Dennis, for getting the ball rolling with your thoughts this afternoon.

With a few drivers in unfamiliar positions for Sunday's race, what do you think is going to happen in Montreal over the next few hours?

Answer the following questions on #bbcf1:

• The race winner will be:
• Fernando Alonso will finish:
• Charles Leclerc will end the day in xx place:
• Happiest team boss will be:

Philippa Carey: Fernando has little to lose beyond a few points; Max has a lot to lose. Who will give way at the first corner?

Dennis Ethan: Carlos Sainz should leave Ferrari at the end of the season. The seat is too hot for him

Fernando Alonso, talking to Sky Sports, ahead of the race: "If I see a chance I will go after Max, but if we start on the wrong side, I will not do any kamikaze move. It's a privilege to be in this position."

On fan support: "It has been incredible, I remember last year after the podium, everyone was happy. I was everyone's favourite for one moment, that feels good. I've had very long years in the sport, I've not been competitive in the past few years. Everyone enjoys it when we have the chance."

On finishing the race on the podium: "With the simulations we have, it's not realistic. P6, P7 is our natural position. It all has to be all good and trouble free for Perez and Leclerc. If they have any issues, we have to be there to take the opportunities."

The little fella would've been 11 years old when Fernando was sitting in his Ferrari, waiting for the lights to go out at Hockenheim in 2012.

Today, Lando Norris begins his quest to collect some points in his McLaren in P14.

Image source, Getty Images

So, blowing off the dusty F1 archives, when was the last time Fernando Alonso won a grand prix from second place on the grid?

Well, it was at the German Grand Prix in 2010 - and it was a bit of a controversial one.

Alonso led a Ferrari one-two with team-mate Felipe Massa after the Brazilian driver appeared to be given orders to let the Spaniard past.

Massa was told by his Ferrari race engineer, Rob Smedley, over team radio: "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understand?" - to which he responded by letting Alonso through moments later.

Following the move, Smedley added: "Good lad. Just stick with it now, sorry."

The Scuderia were eventually fined $100,000 for breaching sporting regulations.

"I'm sure Fernando's elbows are going to be wide today," George Russell tells Sky Sports.

Image source, Reuters

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Montreal

Fernando Alonso might be just over a month away from his 41st birthday, but he’s still driving at a ridiculously high level, and Saturday in Montreal produced a performance that will burnish the Spaniard’s legend.

He had been looking strong all weekend in Alpine, chucking the car around like a go-kart, power slides out of the final chicane, the machine vividly alive and dancing to his command in a way that made it instantly recognisable out on track. Dry on Friday, wet on Saturday; it didn’t matter. There was Alonso at the forefront of things. Even so, no one - not even him and the team - probably expected to be on the front row for the race. But what a lap it was. Team-mate Esteban Ocon was 1.6 seconds behind in seventh place.

“For sure it was not a normal qualifying or not a normal day,” Alonso said. "FP1, we had a very dirty track. Very clean track. FP2, it was getting grippier and more normal. FP3 was wet and qualifying was just semi-dry. So we never had two consecutive sessions with the same conditions so you really had to adapt very fast to those new conditions that you are facing.

“So it seems that we had the right confidence in the car, and a good set-up. So I think it's down to the team 50% and down to the driver that - you know - everything was OK today but it doesn't mean anything because I said the race is tomorrow and you make a mistake and you have zero points.”

Alonso and Alpine have been building momentum in the past few races. There was the flash of potential in Australia, where Alonso looked on course for a top-four grid slot before problems intervened in qualifying. Steady upgrades culminated with a big aerodynamic change in Baku, and now this.

Max Verstappen has always had huge respect for Alonso. Sitting alongside him in the news conference, he smiled as he said: “Fernando is getting a little bit old, but he's still very fast. So I know he starts very well, you know, so I have to be ready.”

Image source, Getty Images

While Max Verstappen was making jokes about Fernando Alonso's Formula 1 age (similar to dog years), the Spaniard was cracking his own gags about what he intends to do to his younger competitor off the line. "I think I will attack Max on the first corner," quipped Alonso.

The Alpine driver has qualified in seventh position in the previous two races in Azerbaijan and Monaco, and when Alonso gave his strategy a bit more thought, he agreed taking the fight to Verstappen could be a winner.

"The goal is to lead the race in lap one. Turn One, maximum attack," he said. "And then after that, they can go and they can fight - but it will be nice, sweet to lead the race."

Will Max Verstappen be smiling at the end of the race?

The world champion looked cool as a cucumber and received plenty of cheers during the drivers parade.

Image source, Reuters

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Montreal

Image source, Getty Images

With Max Verstappen starting on pole for Red Bull and only Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari in third as an obvious threat, the race at the front might not be the most interesting. A lot of attention will be focused on the progress of Charles Leclerc, his title rival - or at least the man who has looked to be his title rival until two engine failures in three races torpedoed his season.

Leclerc ran soft tyres for his race-simulation run on Friday, when Verstappen went for the more conventional medium. Was this an indication of Ferrari’s strategy for Sunday - gain a many places as possible as early as possible and then use softs to push to the end? If so, it would be an unusual choice, when the more conventional one for a fast car at the back would be to start on hards and run long before going for it on softer tyres towards the end. The hard looks like the best race tyre, to the extent that even in the top 10 some could start on it.

Depending on who you speak to, this is either an obvious one-stop medium-hard race, or a close call between a one- and two-stop. The conditions are very different from Saturday, with warm temperatures around 20C and blue skies and sunshine, although it’s windy with gusts up to 45km/h.

Pit-stop time loss is low at 18 seconds under racing conditions and nine seconds under safety car.

Image source, Getty Images

After qualifying, Verstappen said his Red Bull team had "stayed calm" in pursuit of that all-important front-row slot.

He added: "We made sure we were there at the right time and we managed to put in some solid laps. We need to focus on the first lap and then concentrate on our own race, I still expect there to be a good battle.

The world champion then joked in the press conference that Fernando Alonso "was a bit old now", but the Dutchman was anticipating a great race between the pair.

"It’s been a while since Fernando and I have been alongside each other on the grid," he said.

"I used to look up to him as a young kid watching Formula 1, with him being up there winning races and championships, so it’s great to be sharing the front row with him."