It's not quite Monaco but qualifying is crucial in Canada, where George Russell took his sixth grand prix pole position.
Some drivers were happier than others and, even with steward investigations looming, there's still a clear grid of winners and losers from Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
Winner: Mercedes (1st and 4th)
George Russell has looked a pole threat through the Montreal event, so, even though it’s a shock based on recent form, snatching it from Max Verstappen was no great surprise in the context of this weekend.
But this was a great result for Mercedes, even if you add the caveat that one-lap pace really has not been its problem this season.
Backing up Russell was Kimi Antonelli in fourth, which reinforced how strong the car seems to be here - an added bonus within that being that it has the rear suspension that was briefly dropped as Mercedes worked out whether it had inadvertently been a step backwards.
On the evidence of Montreal so far, refitting the upgrade was the right choice.
Loser: McLaren (3rd and 7th)
Off the back of what Lando Norris called McLaren’s “worst Friday of the season” came one of its worst Saturdays.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri did a decent damage limitation job in third having seemed off it through practice, whereas Norris went into Q3 as a genuine pole threat.
Armed with new front suspension designed to help combat the McLaren’s numb front axle - an upgrade Piastri could have had too but opted not to use - Norris seemed effortlessly quick on Saturday until it mattered most.
Two mistakes made for a weak final part of qualifying and seventh is a very poor return given how much speed was in both car and driver.
Winner: Max Verstappen (2nd)
He might not have looked or sounded happy as he used his post-qualifying press conference appearance to criticise the attention his proximity to a race ban has had in recent days, but Verstappen is one of qualifying’s big winners.
Though Verstappen baulks at the idea he is in a title fight and has even gone to the extent of stressing he hasn’t been saying he is, the reality is there’s still a sniff at a championship.
Beating both McLarens was a good first step to undoing some of the self-inflicted points loss he suffered last time out in Spain.
Loser: Charles Leclerc (8th)
After missing all of FP2 because of a crash early in FP1, Charles Leclerc reckoned it wouldn’t impact the rest of his weekend because he felt good in the Ferrari.
Unfortunately, quick as he was, Leclerc didn’t piece it together when it mattered, making two mistakes in Q3 at the same corner - and blaming dirty air from Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bulls for the second one.
Given he had looked a pole threat in Q2, it’s a big disappointment for Leclerc to line up eighth - three places behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Winner then Slight Loser: Isack Hadjar (12th in the end)
There’s something fitting, in the context of Red Bull’s enduring driver conundrum, that it was Hadjar progressing to Q3 yet again that denied Yuki Tsunoda a place in the top 10 shootout.
To be so comfortably in the top 10 when Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson was out in Q1 was a big win - but it a big asterisk given Hadjar faced a real risk of a penalty for impeding Carlos Sainz (and he also annoyed Leclerc in Q3).
That penalty came through an hour and a half after qualifying, and dropped Hadjar to 12th. Still well clear of Lawson and the kind of result Hadjar would've probably been fine with had it been offered before the weekend, but a little less pleasing than a top 10 start.
Loser: Yuki Tsunoda (11th, 20th after penalty)
The good news: Red Bull has brought Tsunoda back up to the same car specification as Verstappen as of Saturday in Montreal. And Tsunoda looked more competitive again. The bad news: Tsunoda wasn’t that competitive. He still struggled relative to Verstappen and couldn’t make it into Q3.
The worse news: Tsunoda copped a silly 10-place grid penalty for an avoidable offence under a red flag in practice, so will start the race last.
So it’s a Saturday that couldn’t have gone much worse in terms of result.
Winner: Fernando Alonso (6th)
Is Aston Martin’s upgraded AMR25 now F1’s fourth-fastest car? It looks that way in Fernando Alonso’s hands.
His qualifying results since the car’s big development a few races ago are 5th, 6th, 10th and now 6th again.
And it was no fluke. Alonso’s looked almost guaranteed of being in the top 10 since FP2 - despite his concerns that this track would expose the car’s poor aerodynamic efficiency.
Loser: Williams (10th and 18th)
FP1: 2nd and 3rd.
FP2: 4th and 7th.
FP3: 9th and 10th.
Qualifying: 10th and 18th.
Williams was careful not to read too much into its epic Friday in Canada but the final result in qualifying is much worse than it expected.
Sainz was an early and very frustrated Q1 exit after being impeded by Hadjar, while Alex Albon ended up slowest in Q3 having looked like a contender to be the leading midfield car. And caused a red flag by shattering his engine cover all over the track.
It’s a poor return given how quick Williams looked, even disregarding how much of an anomaly Friday was, and Albon moving up to ninth via Hadjar's penalty doesn't really salvage it.
Winner: Franco Colapinto (10th after penalties)
This could be a sliding-doors moment for Franco Colapinto, who has emphatically ended his difficult start to life at Alpine in qualifying.
Although Colapinto was disappointed not to do a better job in Q1 and Q2, he avoided team-mate Pierre Gasly’s fate of making a costly mistake that consigned Gasly to last on the grid.
And though Colapinto lamented potentially missing out on a top 10 place, this was a much improved showing and will be very good for his confidence.
He looked like the version of himself that impressed so quickly at Williams, and now has the chance of scoring his first points of the season especially as penalties elevated him into the top 10 for the start.
Loser: Lance Stroll (18th)
Returning from a one-race absence caused by pain in his hand, Lance Stroll was confident that a procedure to deal with the problem following the Spanish Grand Prix had helped.
It was normal service resumed for the Aston Martin driver, but not in a good way, as his disappointing qualifying form continued.
Stroll was a Q1 victim in front of his home crowd, and never looked like getting on team-mate Alonso’s level after his costly FP2 crash.
