Mercedes driver George Russell claimed pole at the Canadian Grand Prix, outpacing team-mate Kimi Antonelli and reigning Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris in Montreal.
Norris led the way in Q3 until the final salvo of laps, with both Mercedes cars struggling to nail a lap until that point, Russell even having to bail out of his first attempt.
But in the dying seconds of qualifying Antonelli leapfrogged Norris, only for an ecstatic Russell to find another tenth to take his second season pole with a 1m12.579s lap. That means Russell and Antonelli will line up in the same position they started Saturday morning’s sprint race from, when the pair came to blows at Montreal’s Turn 1.
Norris and Piastri will share the second row, as they did in the sprint, followed by Lewis Hamilton in fifth.
On a chilly Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Russell hadn’t been the only contender to make life tricky for himself, with many drivers struggling to get the front tyres into the right operating window, even employing double warm-up laps.
Max Verstappen said his car was like “driving one ice” but managed to sneak in a sixth-fastest lap, ahead of team-mate Isack Hadjar and Charles Leclerc, who also struggled for pace and was vocal about his Ferrari’s shortcomings on the team radio.
Max Verstappen struggled with his Red Bull
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
After taking a point in the sprint, Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad backed up his impressive Montreal form with ninth in qualifying, with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto in 10th.
In the battle to survive Q2 and advance to the final shootout, Lindblad and Colapinto both starred by out-qualifying their more experienced team-mates. As Hadjar led the way in Q2, Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg missed the cutoff by just 0.029s in 11th, followed out by Lawson and team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto.
Pierre Gasly continued to endure a difficult weekend as the Frenchman struggled with his Alpine’s behaviour, breaking out of parc ferme to turn Saturday’s sprint into a test session. Gasly qualified 14th, with Carlos Sainz an equally disappointing 15th in the Williams and Oliver Bearman 16th for Haas.
Antonelli led Q1 with a 1m13.380s lap, which was over a tenth quicker than Norris and Piastri. There were no huge difficulties for any of the frontrunners, although Leclerc left it late to set a laptime after going off on his first attempt.
In the background, Gasly survived elimination despite bailing on his first lap. Bortoleto also scraped through at the expense of Haas driver Esteban Ocon, who was first out in 17th.
Alex Albon was also dumped out after not making the start of sprint qualifying on Friday, continuing a troubled weekend on his side of the Williams garage. The four cars from Aston Martin and Cadillac were also eliminated, with Fernando Alonso a lowly 19th. Valtteri Bottas qualified last after going off at Turn 1 on his final flyer.
Valtteri Bottas starts the grand prix in last
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
F1 Canadian GP – Qualifying results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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