2023 Canadian Grand Prix

The event was held across the weekend of 16–18 June 2023.^[1] It was the eighth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship. After the fires in the region, the Grand Prix was in danger of being cancelled.^[4][5][6] However, on 9 June, Formula One Management made a statement that the Grand Prix would continue as planned.^[7]

The Aston Martin team brought major upgrades to the race, overhauling its sidepods and floor.^[8]

Max Verstappen was the Drivers' Championship leader after the seventh round, the Spanish Grand Prix, with 170 points, 53 ahead of Sergio Pérez in second, with Fernando Alonso in third, 18 points behind Pérez. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull Racing led Mercedes by 135 points and Aston Martin by 153.^[9]

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.^[10]

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4 and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.^[11]

The weekend had three free practice sessions, two on 16 June 2023 and one on 17 June 2023. The first practice session started at 13:30 local time (UTC−4), but was abandoned after a few minutes of running after a CCTV failure at the venue. The session was initially stopped to recover the Alpine car of Pierre Gasly, which had stopped on track. Ultimately only twelve drivers set a time in the much curtailed first session with Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo fastest ahead of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso in the two Aston Martin cars.^[12] The FIA also announced the intention to commence the second practice session at 16:30 local time (UTC−4) rather than the originally planned time of 17:00 (UTC−4), also extending the length of the session from the planned 60 minutes to 90 minutes in order to give teams a chance to make up for some of the lost running in the first session.^[13]

The second practice, which ran for 90 minutes, ended with Lewis Hamilton leading the session ahead of teammate George Russell and Carlos Sainz Jr. The session was red-flagged twice due to issues with Esteban Ocon and Nico Hülkenberg's vehicles.^[14] The third practice session started on 17 June 2023 at 12:30 local time (UTC−4). The session was red-flagged after a crash by Carlos Sainz Jr. Verstappen was fastest ahead of Leclerc and Alonso.^[15]

Qualifying was held on 17 June 2023, at 16:00 local time (UTC−4).^[1]

Rain befell the second and third session. Only three minutes after Q1 began, Zhou Guanyu reported an issue with his Ferrari power unit and caused a red flag with a stranded and powerless car on track. However, during the red flag period, his car was able to restart and he went back into the pits. However, he did not set a further time, so he started at the back of the grid. Max Verstappen topped Q1 ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, with Carlos Sainz Jr. impeding Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly, the latter who was shown to be furious over the team radio. His impeding resulted in a three-place drop for the Ferrari driver. Gasly joined Zhou, Yuki Tsunoda, teammate Nyck de Vries and Logan Sargeant as the drivers all out of Q1.^[16]

It was during Q2 that the rain started to fall. As such, drivers used intermediate tyres; Sergio Pérez and Lance Stroll made contact with the wall no damage, and joined Charles Leclerc, Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas as the drivers out of Q2. Alexander Albon set the fastest lap of the session, but could not set a time in Q3. Hamilton set a time for 10th.^[16]

Verstappen began Q3 with a slide off the final corner, with Oscar Piastri going fully off the exit of turn 6 and crashing out. This resulted in the second red flag of the day as Nico Hülkenberg set a time as it went out. The session was soon resumed. Before penalties, Hülkenberg's time for second place gave Haas its second-highest qualification result after Magnussen's pole at the 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix. He was behind polesitter Verstappen and ahead of Alonso.^[17] Hülkenberg was surprised with his performance, saying that it "comes a bit unexpected," but expected a challenge during the race.^[18]

Hülkenberg was summoned to the stewards for a red flag infraction, dropping him three places;^[19] Tsunoda and Stroll were also given three-place drops for impeding.^[20]

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:20.851	1:19.092	1:25.858	1
2	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1:22.730	1:20.305	1:27.102	5a
3	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:21.481	1:19.776	1:27.286	2
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:21.554	1:20.426	1:27.627	3
5	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:21.798	1:20.098	1:27.893	4
6	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:22.114	1:20.406	1:27.945	6
7	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.998	1:19.347	1:28.046	7
8	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:22.248	1:19.856	1:29.294	11b
9	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1:22.190	1:19.659	1:31.349	8
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1:21.938	1:18.725	No time	9
11	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:21.843	1:20.615	N/A	10
12	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:22.151	1:20.959	N/A	12
13	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:22.677	1:21.484	N/A	16c
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1:22.351	1:21.678	N/A	13
15	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:22.332	1:21.821	N/A	14
16	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1:22.746	N/A	N/A	19d
17	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1:22.886	N/A	N/A	15
18	21	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1:23.137	N/A	N/A	17
19	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1:23.337	N/A	N/A	18
20	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:23.342	N/A	N/A	20
107% time: 1:26.510e
Source:[21][22]

Notes

• ^a – Nico Hülkenberg received a three-place grid penalty for a red flag infringement in Q3.^[22]
• ^b – Carlos Sainz Jr. received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Pierre Gasly in Q1.^[22][23]
• ^c – Lance Stroll received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Esteban Ocon in Q2.^[22][24]
• ^d – Yuki Tsunoda received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in Q1.^[22][25]
• ^e – As qualifying was held on a wet track, the 107% rule was not in force.^[26]