Fernando Alonso’s final F1 front row begins as he stars in Canadian GP qualifying

When did Fernando Alonso’s final frontline start in F1 as he claims a surprising second on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix in a wet session in Montreal?

Plan Was working at full strength throughout practice and qualifying in Montreal as Fernando Alonso has been at the top of the time sheet for Alpine all weekend.

In a wet, but drier qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, Alonso was in contention for pole position.

In the closing stages of Q3, Alonso managed to put the A522 on intermediate tyres, second on the grid behind pole-seater Max Verstappen.

Alonso was 0.645 seconds behind Verstappen and overtook fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr on P2, with Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth for Mercedes.

But when did Fernando Alonso’s last front row start in F1? Was this his last pole position?

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Fernando Alonso’s final front line F1 . starts in

Fernando Alonso last qualified in the 2012 German Grand Prix at the front line in F1.

Driving for Ferrari, he grabbed pole position in heavy rain at Hockenheim – and turned it into his third Grand Prix victory of the season.

Since then Alonso has been fond of bad cars – such as in the McLaren-Honda days when front row starts were nearly impossible due to package limitations.

He left F1 at the end of 2018 before returning after another Indy 500 attempt and winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans for a second time.

Since the 2012 German Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso has started 155 Grand Prix starts in the middle of the front row.

Alonso, 40, is the oldest driver to be on the front line in F1 as 43-year-old Michael Schumacher finished second at the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix.

What happened elsewhere?

Hamilton ousted teammate George Russell for the first time in four races as the young Briton tried to gamble on slick tires at the end of the third quarter.

Russell was the only driver to gamble on the slicks, but at Turn 2 pushed the barrier into a run that was only going to end with him on pole or fence.

Mick Schumacher achieved the best qualifying result ever in F1 and finished sixth behind teammate Kevin Magnussen.

Sergio Perez crashed in Q2, but avoided serious damage at Red Bull, while Zhou Guanyu secured a first-ever Q3 berth in his rookie season for Alfa Romeo, finishing P10.

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