Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton deliver in Canada rain but Max Verstappen still in a league of his own

MONTREAL — A heavy downpour and a drying track has been a box office combination at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve before and it proved to be so again Saturday.

Max Verstappen claimed a dominant pole position, Fernando Alonso made a popular return to the front row of the grid and Lewis Hamilton delivered an impressive result just six days after he was barely able to climb out of the cockpit of his car in Baku.

Here’s a run down of the some of the main talking points from qualifying for the first Canadian Grand Prix since 2019.

Vintage Alonso shows what all the fuss is about

The only disappointing thing about Alonso qualifying second — his first front row start since the 2012 German Grand Prix — was that he wasn’t on pole.

F1 has welcomed a legion of new fans over the past few years and performances like this are helpful in conveying just how good Alonso is. There are many in the paddock who still consider the Spaniard the most complete driver of this modern era, even if he has not won a grand prix since 2013.

It is remarkable that a career which included ending Michael Schumacher’s run of five straight championships in the mid-2000s also had a 10 year gap between front row starts, but that is one of the many quirks which has made Alonso such a compelling and, at times, frustrating driver to follow for all these years.

Alonso has delivered plenty of impressive performances in F1 since returning to the grid last year with the Alpine team formerly known as Renault, but this might be the best of the bunch.

The French team’s car has been slowing steady improvements in recent races and Alonso was delivering strong times throughout practice this week.

Alonso, world champion in 2005 and 2006, clearly wants to have some fun at the start of the race.

After stepping out of the car, he flashed a grin and said “I think we’ll attack Max on the first corner!”, a statement he repeated more seriously in the press conference which followed.

In an ordinary race Alonso has little chance of hanging with Verstappen and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who starts from third, but he has put himself in a perfect position to capitalise on any major drama out in front.

Joy for Hamilton, Russell’s gamble backfires

Qualifying flipped what has been the usual narrative at Mercedes for much of this season, with Hamilton on form and George Russell left wondering what might have been after failing to utilise…