Russell nabs pole at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve with last-second flier, Antonelli P2 as Mercedes lock out front row; McLaren claim second row with Norris ahead of Piastri, P3 to P4
Having already aggressively diced with and prevailed over his Mercedes teammate in the Sprint race, George Russell came from down in tenth place to seize pole at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve with a stunning final flying lap during Saturday Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix. Desperate to reestablish his championship aspirations and get back on terms with his points-leading Silver Arrows stablemate, Kimi Antonelli, Russell was all arms and elbows in the Sprint en route to victory there, earning the ire of the young Italian in the process, and then pulled one out of the bag in the dying moments of Q3 to relegate Antonelli to second on the grid here in Montreal. The opening lap battles between the two Mercedes men should set the tone for a potentially epic internecine fight for glory that could well end in tears for one or both men and potentially open the door for another contender to take advantage of any potential race-altering contacts between the two lead Mercs.
Chief among those trailing rivals appear to be a resurgent McLaren, whose tandem of reigning champion Lando Norris and the always capable Oscar Piastri steadily progressed on pace throughout quali and put themselves firmly ahead of both Ferraris with a P3 for Norris and a P4 for Piastri. While the McLaren duo couldn’t quite match the pace of mighty Mercedes, team Papaya are inching closer to parity with some already significant early season upgrades. Lewis Hamilton flew the flag for Ferrari at a circuit he loves and where he has seven career victories. While his hopes for pole faded as Mercedes and McLaren showed their true one-lap pace, he put in a time good enough for a solid P5. That was quite a bit more rapid than his normally equal stablemate, Charles Leclerc, who struggled throughout qualifying with the balance of his Prancing Horse and ended up merely P8 on the time sheets. The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar split the Scuderia in P6 and P7 respectively, despite Verstappen’s vociferous gripes about the abilities of his RB22. Rounding out the top ten qualifiers for Canada, rookie Arvid Lindblad pedaled his Racing Bull to an impressive P9 and Franco Colapinto was the lead Alpine in P10.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Canadian GP:
| POS | DRIVER | TEAM | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Mercedes | 1:13.953 | 1:13.079 | 1:12.578 | 24 |
| 2 |
|
Mercedes | 1:13.380 | 1:13.076 | 1:12.646 | 24 |
| 3 |
|
McLaren | 1:13.503 | 1:13.049 | 1:12.729 | 28 |
| 4 |
|
McLaren | 1:13.559 | 1:13.285 | 1:12.781 | 29 |
| 5 |
|
Ferrari | 1:13.767 | 1:13.041 | 1:12.868 | 27 |
| 6 |
|
Red Bull | 1:14.067 | 1:13.479 | 1:12.907 | 23 |
| 7 |
|
Red Bull | 1:13.654 | 1:12.975 | 1:12.935 | 22 |
| 8 |
|
Ferrari | 1:13.825 | 1:13.496 | 1:12.976 | 29 |
| 9 |
|
Racing Bulls | 1:13.895 | 1:13.548 | 1:13.280 | 28 |
| 10 |
|
Alpine | 1:14.466 | 1:13.857 | 1:13.697 | 27 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula.com.
Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix airs live beginning at 4pm Eastern on AppleTV and Netflix here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Russell can keep Antonelli behind him or if the two come to grief amidst their increasingly heated rivalry and open the door to another contender to take victory!