Quite a good Saturday under the rain of Montreal for Guanyu Zhou, as the rookie made his first ever Q3 appearance in Formula 1.

“I’m extremely happy to get into Q3, especially as it was my first time having a fully wet qualifying session on only my third rainy session overall, after Imola and FP3 today,” he stated at the end of Quali.

“From the moment I woke up this morning and saw the conditions, I knew that anything could happen.”

It was also the first time around Circuit de Gilles-Villeneuve for the 23-year-old, who secured a P10 for Sunday’s starting grid closing his lap in 1m24.030s and putting his Alfa Romeo between Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren and the other C42 with teammate Valtteri Bottas at the wheel.

“We’ve been often close to Q3 in the past, but I was not expecting to reach it here in Montreal, which is a completely new track for me. Nevertheless, we’ve showed good pace and good progress during the season so far and this is the result.”

He called it his "hardest quali", but it delivered the sweetest reward... Q3!

Mega driving, @ZhouGuanyu24 😁#CanadianGP #F1 @alfaromeoorlen pic.twitter.com/sAThO13jS9

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 19, 2022

The qualifying session started in full wet conditions and dried up a bit into intermediates from Q2 on, making it rather challenging for the drivers.

“I enjoyed driving in these conditions, and with the added pressure for us drivers, because every little mistake could affect your performance. It was really tough out there today, the track was slippery and it was almost impossible to see the other drivers in front,” he explained.

“I’m happy to have been able to give everything I got, my laps in Q3 have been a bit messy but I am glad to have extracted the full potential from the car.”

“In terms of race pace, we have always been quite strong in the past in dry conditions, so we will try to give our best tomorrow and fight for a top ten finish.”