Russell steals Canadian GP pole from Antonelli

Having struggled early in the final part of qualifying, Mercedes found the pace when it mattered most, with Antonelli initially appearing set to secure his fourth straight pole.

But Russell had other ideas, snatching top spot from his young teammate with a 1m12.578s to edge Antonelli by just 0.068s.

Lando Norris had shown strong pace earlier in the session but could only manage third, once again finishing ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri in fourth.

Piastri looked particularly quick through the middle sector at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve but could not find enough time in the opening and final sectors to climb any higher.

Lewis Hamilton was fifth for Ferrari, with Max Verstappen sixth for Red Bull ahead of teammate Isack Hadjar and the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto completed the top 10.

Russell described his ninth career pole as a “great feeling” after a tricky final part of qualifying.

“It’s always challenging coming back from the sprint race. The car feels very different,” he said.

“You’re obviously into a qualifying format. We made some changes as a team. We need a review after if that was the right direction.

“And then obviously that last lap just sort of came from nowhere and it was just such a great feeling when it was such a challenging session.

“To just put it all together on that last lap to sort of throw yourself up the leaderboard was epic.”

 

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Russell explained the changes made between the sprint race and qualifying were largely due to the forecast of wet weather for Sunday’s race.

“We made some changes based on the forecast for tomorrow. It may have hurt us a little bit for now,” he added.

“It just took the car out of sync a little bit. And both of us, Kimi was definitely more competitive than I in that session. But we weren’t as clear ahead of everybody else as we were yesterday.

“So it was definitely a challenge. And, as I said, just managed to redial my driving in for that last lap and put it together.”

After a tense battle with his teammate during the earlier sprint race, Russell said it would not change anything between the pair on Sunday.

“We’ve had a good chat since this morning and we’re both racing drivers. We both know what to do,” he explained.

“We both respect one another. So we’ll go racing.”

He added that he was wary of the pace of the cars behind, as well as the forecast rain adding another element to the grand prix.

“We hope it’s just battling the two of us but we saw today how competitive everybody else is,” he said.

“Tomorrow looks to be wet. That’s going to be a whole new challenge as well.

“So to be honest it’s not really what we’re thinking about now. We just want to ensure that we can be standing on the top step.”

Antonelli said he was pleased to secure a front-row start despite narrowly missing out on pole, while also highlighting the challenge of getting the tyres into the right window at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“It’s always a bit hard to commit for lap one,” he said.

“It’s very difficult this weekend with tyres, putting them in the right window, but yeah, I was pretty happy.

“Of course still a little bit left on the table, but George did a great lap, and now eyes on to tomorrow.”

He added that he was unsure how the race would unfold given the strong chance of rain during the grand prix.

“We’ll see. We’ll see what the weather is going to be like. But of course we’ll try to be ready for anything.”

Norris meanwhile said he was unsure whether there was much more pace left in the McLaren to challenge Mercedes for pole on the final runs.

“It’s always impossible to know,” he said.

“I feel like we did a good job out there today honestly. You can always say it, but I’m sure everyone can say around here it’s a difficult track to kind of put everything together perfectly.

“But I think we did another good job.

“It’s clear that these guys are just a little bit quicker. It’s nice to be closer than we were yesterday.

“Of course the weather’s going to be different tomorrow so we’ll wait and see.

“But we’re in a good place and we’re in the place we need to be.”

Norris jumped to provisional pole midway through Q3, going two tenths quicker than Piastri, who had himself laid down a strong banker lap moments earlier.

Hamilton then split the McLarens to move provisionally onto the front row, while Antonelli could only manage fourth and Russell brushed the wall on his banker lap, leaving him bottom of the timesheets with five minutes remaining.

But Mercedes’ pace proved untouchable in the closing stages as the Silver Arrows locked out the front row once again.

It was an incredibly tight Q2, with the top five featuring four different teams and separated by only one tenth of a second, while less than half a second covered the top seven, as Hadjar emerged as the surprise fastest driver of the session.

Nico Hulkenberg once again finished in his familiar spot of 11th, missing out on Q3 by just one tenth of a second.

He was joined by Liam Lawson, who again could not match teammate Lindblad’s pace to progress into the top 10 and ended the session in 12th.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman rounded out the Q2 eliminations behind Hulkenberg and Lawson.

Q1 saw the usual backmarkers knocked out, with both Aston Martins and Cadillacs filling the final four spots on the grid.

Fernando Alonso was the quicker of the Aston Martin pair in 19th, while hometown favourite Lance Stroll finished 21st, with both drivers placed under investigation for separate pit lane incidents early in qualifying — Alonso for an unsafe release and Stroll for leaving the pits in an unsafe condition.

Stroll also endured a scary moment during the session after running wide at Turn 3 and narrowly avoiding the wall.

Valtteri Bottas had his own late scare after locking up into Turn 8 and sliding through the grass, with the Finn finishing last as teammate Sergio Perez ended the session in 20th.

The pair were joined in Q1 elimination by Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon, who finished 17th and 18th respectively.

The Canadian Grand Prix gets underway at 4pm local time on Sunday (6am AEST Monday).

Results: Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, Qualifying