On the weekend Red Bull can claim their 100th F1 win and Verstappen can match Ayrton Senna's victory tally of 41, the world championship leader will start from pole position after making the most of being first out on track in Q3 as the rain intensified, setting a best time of 1:25.858.

Verstappen will be joined on the front row by Nico Hulkenberg after the Haas driver managed to complete a lap and better Fernando Alonso's first Q3 effort just before the red flag was thrown out after Oscar Piastri crashed into a wall.

And as rain continued to fall during a seven-minute delay, no driver was able to improve his time in the final minutes of the session.

"In the wet you just have to stay on top of the conditions," Verstappen said. "It was super slippery out there in some places, but we just made all the right calls, the right time on the track to do the lap times, and I'm very happy to be on pole here.

"I like driving in the wet. I come from Holland, so we are used to driving in the wet.

"Let's see, maybe it's dry tomorrow and then it can be a bit different, but normally we have a good race car."

Alonso will have to settle for third on the grid, the red flag having come out as he was approaching the final chicane on an improved lap.

Lewis Hamilton will start fourth ahead of Mercedes team-mate George Russell, with Alpine's Esteban Ocon and McLaren's Lando Norris lining up behind.

Carlos Sainz set the eighth fastest time, but the Ferrari driver was later handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Pierre Gasly in Q1.

The Alpine driver had to take to the run-off area at the final chicane after narrowly avoiding a high-speed crash as cars backed up at the end of the session.

"Carlos did the worst job possible to stay completely on the racing line," Gasly told Sky Sports F1.

"For me that's completely unacceptable and unfair. I have no words to explain what happened."

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Red Bull's Sergio Perez were absent from the top-10 shootout for the second race in a row after they were unable to make the most of a drying track during Q2. Leclerc will line up 10th, promoted one position by Sainz's penalty, while Perez will start 12th.

Alex Albon had topped Q2 after being the first driver to move onto the soft tyres, but he was unable to set a lap time in the final segment and will line up ninth behind Piastri.

There could be a further changes to the final qualifying order with the stewards also investigating Hulkenberg over a red flag infringement, along with Lance Stroll, who qualified 13th on the grid.

Canadian GP Qualifying result

1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Nico Hulkenberg, Haas
3) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
4) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
5) George Russell, Mercedes
6) Esteban Ocon, Alpine
7) Lando Norris, McLaren
8) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari*
9) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
10) Alex Albon, Williams

*Sainz given three-place grid penalty for impeding

How Verstappen claimed a 25th pole position

After the track had dried out enough for slick tyres in Q2, the rain at the end of that segment had intensified by the time Q3 began.

Verstappen was the first to take to the track in the top-10 shootout and posted a time of 1:27.059, with Alonso getting within a quarter of a second with his opening effort.

Verstappen was still able to find improvement on his next effort to set his pole time, and Alonso was also improving through the first two sectors when the red flag was deployed as Piastri span at Turn Seven, damaging the rear of his McLaren.

Instead it will be Hulkenberg who will line-up alongside Verstappen. The experienced German, back in Formula 1 this year after a three-season absence, put in a fine lap to secure Haas their first front-row start for a Grand Prix.

"This was a bit unexpected but I'm very happy and proud. It was super smooth, so very happy," Hulkenberg said.

"First row is nice, let's see how long we can keep that. A dry race will be very different. I just want to go out there, race as hard as I can and hopefully get a nice result."

Perez, Leclerc makes early qualifying exits again

On Thursday, Perez had said he could not afford any more "bad weekends" after seeing his title challenge fall away with poor displays in Monaco and Barcelona.

Perez had crashed out of Q1 in Monaco and exited in Q2 in Spain, but would make another early exit here in Canada after struggling in the improving track conditions.

The Mexican was among the last drivers to switch to slick tyres as a dry line formed, and as he did so the rain returned. Perez made a switch back to intermediate tyres but then locked up at the final chicane to be unable to finish an improved lap, and by the time he could go around again, the track was too wet to improve.

"Once we went on the slick tyre track position wasn't great. We were half a lap late," Perez said.

"We definitely could have been a lot higher, in the top three."

Leclerc also fell early and vented his fury at his Ferrari team over the radio, claiming they had not got the tyres ready when they were needed.

The weekend had been looking more promising for the Italian team after a strong Friday and Leclerc had been second fastest in Saturday's wet Practice Three.

But that promise unravelled on Saturday afternoon with Leclerc left fuming at strategy decisions.

"When the track is so dry and we are staying on intermediates, we are not making our life any easier," he told Sky Sports F1.

"We will discuss with the team but it's not the first time it's happened. We are quite often on the wrong side of making those decisions in those tricky situations.

"I had a clear opinion and we went for something opposite."

Home favourite Stroll was another driver to make an early exit, the Canadian spinning his Aston Martin and damaging his front wing with the resulting pit stop costing essential time as the rain returned.

But Albon was the star of the second period having immediately gone onto the soft tyres to set the fastest time in the session.

Gasly falls in Q1 in frantic finish

In the opening segment, Gasly was the big name to fall when he was a victim of cars backing up through the final chicane.

The Frenchman, who received two three-place grid penalties last time out in Spain for impeding in qualifying, had to take evasive action to avoid piling into the back of Sainz's Ferrari.

"Pierre would've been P6 and instead was out in Q1," Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnaur told Sky Sports F1.

Hamilton and Stroll also had a close coming together at the hairpin, with the Mercedes driver almost turning in on the Aston Martin.