Russell edges out Red Bull’s Verstappen by a whisker for surprise pole at Montreal in upgraded Mercedes; Norris P3, Piastri P4; both Ferraris out in Q2, Perez bounced in Q1
On the newly surfaced and washed-by-the-rains Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, it was the upgraded Mercedes of George Russell who found surprising pace amidst tricky conditions during Saturday Qualifying, besting Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to earn pole for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix. Despite setting identical times, Russell was awarded pole by dint of setting his time earliest in the final quali session, as Verstappen made his final near-perfect charge across the line when the checkers had already flown. It was an impressive achievement for Russell on a very green track, as the young Englishman wrestled his car and wrung its neck en route to the first Mercedes pole of the season. Despite the obvious performance enhancement wrought by the new Silver Arrows front wing design and despite looking like a contender for pole himself for a while, teammate Lewis Hamilton struggled in Q3 en route to only a P6 spot on the grid. That was nothing compared to Verstappen’s Red Bull stablemate, Sergio Perez, who, fresh off an extension that will keep him with the team for the next two seasons, struggled so mightily with rear grip that he was bounced out in Q1. The Mexican veteran will have it all to do come race day starting from down in P16 if he is to score much-needed points for Red Bull in the face of McLaren and Ferrari’s recent onslaught.
Speaking of those two challenger teams, McLaren continued its run of consistently good form, with Lando Norris and Oliver Piastri filling out the second row of the grid in P3 and P4 respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, Ferrari struggled mightily with their own grip issues after their sparkling weekend in Monaco a fortnight ago, with neither car able to escape Q2. Charles Leclerc will start in P11 and teammate Carlos Sainz was relegated to P12. RB Honda demonstrated superb improvement at this high compromise, old school track, with Daniel Ricciardo securing an impressive P5 ahead of Yuki Tsunoda’s P8. Aston Martin was also in the mix at team owner Lawrence Stroll’s and son and driver Lance Stroll’s home race, with Fernando Alonso back to form and outpacing the junior Stroll, P6 to P9. Alexander Albon’s Williams rounded out the top ten qualifiers with a lap good enough for P10 on the grid.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Canadian GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:13.013 | 1:11.742 | 1:12.000 | |
| 2 | 1:12.360 | 1:12.549 | 1:12.000 | |
| 3 | 1:12.959 | 1:12.201 | 1:12.021 | |
| 4 | 1:12.907 | 1:12.462 | 1:12.103 | |
| 5 | 1:13.240 | 1:12.572 | 1:12.178 | |
| 6 | 1:13.117 | 1:12.635 | 1:12.228 | |
| 7 | 1:12.851 | 1:11.979 | 1:12.280 | |
| 8 | 1:12.748 | 1:12.303 | 1:12.414 | |
| 9 | 1:13.088 | 1:12.659 | 1:12.701 | |
| 10 | 1:12.896 | 1:12.485 | 1:12.796 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race from Circuit Gilles Villeneuve airs live at 3 pm Eastern on ABC here in the States. Then we’ll find out if Mercedes’ newfound pace is for real, if McLaren can make move for the victory from the second row or if Verstappen can return to the top step of the podium at all of their expense. Not to mention if Ferrari can rediscover their race pace that was sorely lacking in one lap trim — hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out in what should be an action packed affair!