Periods of rain are expected on Sunday in Montreal which could affect the seventh round of the championship at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The race is due to begin at 2pm local time and with periodic showers due to fall throughout the day drivers may have to respond to sudden changes in conditions.
They aren’t likely to get much chance to test their cars in wet conditions during the preceding days. Qualifying on Saturday should see warm and sunny conditions.
The first day of practice on Friday will be cloudier with a slight chance of rain. But it’s Sunday forecast which is causing the most concern at the moment.
This venue is no stranger to wet conditions. The 2011 race was badly disrupted by rain and ended up taking over four hours to complete. Rain also affected qualifying in 2013.
For more updates on the track conditions during each session keep an eye on F1 Fanatic Live and the F1 Fanatic Twitter account.
Location of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
See the location of every race on the 2017 F1 calendar here:
2017 Canadian Grand Prix
- 2017 Canadian Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Hamilton takes first Driver of the Weekend win of 2017
- Canadian GP rated highly despite no fight at the front
- 2017 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2017 Canadian Grand Prix Star Performers
Rafael Berdeja
8th June 2017, 10:08
Rain in Canada usually means a lot of fun racing. Looking forward to this do much!
Ben Needham (@ben-n)
8th June 2017, 10:25
Sounds like fun!
Todfod (@todfod)
8th June 2017, 10:26
Rain on Sunday! Should be stellar.
kanan
8th June 2017, 11:05
For a while now rain has actually made racing more boring somehow… At least at the front of the grid.
Ben Needham (@ben-n)
8th June 2017, 11:22
Do you think? I can’t remember any recent wet race that I’ve found overly dull. I don’t like the starts behind the Safety Car, but in theory they should be disappearing for this year.
petebaldwin (@)
8th June 2017, 15:13
I think it’ll be different this year. I used to love it when it rained but in recent years, rain has meant driving around slowly behind the safety car until there is a dry line and then they dive in for inters.
There is usually an incident at the start at Canada so a standing start in the rain is going to be interesting!
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
8th June 2017, 18:32
Standing starts are mandatory in rainy conditions for this year though. The FIA changed the rules for 2017 after the heavy critique regarding the British GP safetycar start.
@F1-liners (@f1-liners)
8th June 2017, 11:22
What ‘concern’? ;)
W-K (@w-k)
8th June 2017, 11:34
I hope the owner of this site doesn’t object but Montreal weather and for almost all of N. America can be viewed at
W-K (@w-k)
8th June 2017, 11:35
That “link” action didn’t work. try in plain text.
http://adrianplatts.com/webcam/
GechiChan (@gechichan)
8th June 2017, 11:51
Rain on Sunday would be awesome, as it would probably get the RedBulls (especially Max) in the fight for victory, maybe even Alonso for a decent points finish.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
8th June 2017, 13:09
@gechichan Alonso. finish. Wouldn’t bet on it.
gregwtravels (@gregwtravels)
8th June 2017, 12:00
As I’ll be sitting in the grandstands, I guess I’ll bring my wet weather gear.
I wonder if those at home will get lots of fascinating commentary on the ducks like in 2011.
miki
8th June 2017, 12:27
C4 may be , Sky surely will try to stir something out of nothing ;) :)
CareyPatrick (@careypatrick)
8th June 2017, 15:23
It s a good idea to also take something cushy to sit on and keep your rear dry/warm. Those aluminium grandstands get crazy cold when the suns not shining. I used to take a camping pad and fold it lengthwise, so 4 of us could be comfortable. Wish I were going this year.
Jeroen
8th June 2017, 12:26
Rain on Race-day sounds like Max… …..as long as someone else does not screw up right in front of him.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
8th June 2017, 18:43
Agreed Jeroen, but to be fair Max can be a bit mistake prone.
He crashed in the rain and in the dry last year at Monaco, all by himself. He also spun off at T1 at Silverstone in the rain but was saved by the run-off. He almost lost it in Brazil in the rain too. He made a huge mistake at Mexico by locking up and ultimately costing him a podium. He crashed into the back of his teammate in Australia, made contact with Bottas in Baku qualy, the over opportunistic T1 crash with the Ferrari’s in Belgium, contact with Kimi in Hungary, the pitstop fiasco at USA, and the T1 crash at Abu Dhabi last year.
In Montreal there are not much runoff areas other than at the hairpin and the final chicane…
he is the one
9th June 2017, 9:47
Max will never settle for points when he has the feeling he can achieve more and finish higher in the order. By doing so he has to take more risk and sometimes he get punished (crash) and sometimes he got rewarded. But is he not the exciting driver we all love to watch by doing so. You mention Brazil; but is it not marvelous to see this car control (50% luck, 50% skills he said) and Silverstone have this run off where also Alonso en Hamilton and many others went off. I call that one a calculated risk. And Jeffrey we talking about f1 racing all the things you mention goes also for Vettel, Hamilton and what the heck even Schumacher. Is it not remarkable that nobody to up to date had to retire because of Max fault.
Rain in Canada means Max will come into play. Does it mean things can’t turn wrong for Max?? Ofcourse not!! but at least the result of this race is not known before sunday 16.00hrs.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
9th June 2017, 11:06
That sums up Max in a nutshell. And you’re right. That’s why he is exciting to watch.
Antoon van Gemert
9th June 2017, 18:20
I’m not sure I understand what the Max-‘mistakes’ list has to do with the prospect of a wet race? Fact is that Max Verstappen is a true rainmaster, taking risks nobody else dares to take in those very difficult circumstances, like in the three races at the Norisring (2014 European F3 Championship), Brazil 2016 and of course China 2017. At this stage, I think a wet race is the only chance for Max of winning a Grand Prix, but I don’t think it will rain on Sunday. Monday it will, but that’s too little to late….
By the way, in 2000 Max’ father drove one of his best, if not the best, race on this circuit in the wet in a Arrows.
zomtec
8th June 2017, 12:35
Forecast of rain immediately made me smile because I still have that memory of rain spicing up things although the last races which were affected by rain were not entirely fun to watch. Long safety car periods, delays, interruptions etc did kill the excitment very often.
Understeer (@abdelilah)
8th June 2017, 12:37
That would be the best way to spice up the show.
Gary
8th June 2017, 13:06
Pathetic Safety Car start in the forecast. Charlie Whiting knows how to spoil an exciting race.
Bookoi (@bookoi)
8th June 2017, 13:18
Nope. There’s a bizarre science behind F1 weather, whereby the more the chance of rain is talked up, the less likely it is to transpire. I’m crossing my fingers for torrential sunshine ;)
Robbie (@robbie)
8th June 2017, 13:29
Lol me too…torrential sunshine please.
I go to theweathernetwork.com which is Canada’s main weather network. It shows for Sunday in Montreal 27 degrees, risk of thunderstorms, 60% chance of precipitation, and winds (or gusts, not sure) of 39kph.
Akshat
8th June 2017, 17:01
+1
Well it seems that we fans should never expect rainfall until it actually rains.
Robbie (@robbie)
8th June 2017, 13:20
I still don’t get the excitement of rainy races. Cars driving on ice, 15 seconds a lap slower. Well of course I get that it is a byproduct of an F1 that badly needs closer racing and more chance of more drivers winning each race weekend, but still…hopefully under Liberty/Brawn they get F1 to the point of people not needing the ‘gadget’ of rain to spice things up.
Shimks (@shimks)
8th June 2017, 13:42
Hi @robbie, what I love about rainy races is all the mistakes that are possible and, even more so, the opportunities often for normally non-front running drivers to really shine.
Robbie (@robbie)
8th June 2017, 14:01
@shimks Yeah for sure you’re right about that. For me I just can’t help but put an asterisk beside those anomalies of performance that won’t likely be duplicated, but hey, those races go into the record books just like all others. And I do admit I was enthralled with Max’s performance last year. But I also feel bad
for the drivers racing in those conditions.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
8th June 2017, 18:50
@robbie Rain has always mixed up the ‘normal’ order of things in any era. Lot’s of car control is needed and guys like Senna, Schumacher, Hamilton and Vettel all showed they are mega in the rain (can’t say Alonso has oddly enough, someone correct me if I’m wrong on that please)
Robbie (@robbie)
8th June 2017, 19:40
@jeffreyj Yeah for sure…been watching since Gilles, but I still don’t like the rain for F1. And like they say cars good in the dry are usually good in the wet too. I know there’s exceptions to that. Bottom line for me I’d much rather an enthralling product in the dry than to have to depend on rain to spice things up.
Shimks (@shimks)
9th June 2017, 10:33
@robbie @jeffreyj
This I totally agree with. But if most of the races are great then it’s always nice to see the drivers tackling substantially different conditions.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
9th June 2017, 11:11
@robbie
That’s like a British person saying he can’t enjoy a sunny day because he much rather would have a sunny climate…. You know….duh… come man! You’re wright but for now just ejoy nice sunny day (or rain I guess)
Tony Mansell
8th June 2017, 14:16
Max wins. Massa spins. SOOO predictable ;)
Loup Garou (@loup-garou)
8th June 2017, 14:31
A wet Canadian GP should be VERY interesting. But the forecast that I looked at earlier today said rain on Friday but cloudy and humid only for the weekend. Maybe things have changed.
Yuriy (@ykvarts)
8th June 2017, 18:09
Only 20% chance of rain according to several weather sites, most likely won’t happen
Robbie (@robbie)
8th June 2017, 19:43
Still seeing 20% for Saturday and 60% for Sunday.
Loup Garou (@loup-garou)
8th June 2017, 20:57
We have to remember that the race takes place in a relatively small window of time. If it is dry for 6 hours (4 hours before and 2 hours during) for the race, it might be a dry race for all intents and purposes.
But out of interest, if the track is wet, which team will it favour most? Red Bull?
socalf1fan (@socalf1fan)
9th June 2017, 7:18
Well, maybe Jenson came back for his one-timer a race early
Markos
9th June 2017, 22:48
Comment of the day for me :)
Nooma341 (@nooma341)
9th June 2017, 12:10
The forecast as of Friday morning for Sunday’s race is now Sunny with a high of 32 degrees C. Rain is now coming Monday.
Robbie (@robbie)
9th June 2017, 14:04
Yup was just about to post the same. Seems rain is very unlikely now. Reminds me of the last time I was at the Montreal race. Very hot and sunny. Thank goodness it wasn’t also humid.