George Russell has beaten his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli by just under seven hundredths to take sprint pole at the Canadian Grand Prix. The Englishman set a 12.965 as the Mercedes duo left it late in SQ3 to secure the front row, and while the fight for pole looked close, the closing moments saw the Mercedes pull ahead with a three-tenths advantage over the McLaren’s.
Russell was fastest on the first runs in SQ3, then was able to hang on with his own improvement on the final attempt, while Antonelli was on a good lap and the last over the line, it wasn’t enough to push his teammate off pole. Mercedes left it a race later than most teams to bring their upgrade, where it looked to be slightly closer in Miami, they have reestablished the sizeable advantage.
Russell went into the weekend admitting it had been a “turbulent” start to the season, in which Antonelli has won three of the four grands prix so far, and he has started the weekend off well.
Lando Norris was around a quarter of a tenth behind the Italian as he put himself three hundredths faster than his McLaren teammate. The team has brought what it had described since Miami as ‘phase two’ of an entirely new car; they were closer than they were, but still three tenths off.
It appears that while McLaren upgrades have kept them within range of Mercedes, it was not enough to counterbalance the effect of Mercedes on this track, where the world champions have often struggled.
Russell, who secured pole position for the sprint race, said: “Obviously feels great after a tough Miami Grand Prix. Never doubted myself; I knew what I could do. Miami was a bit unique, and this is an amazing circuit here, high grip, feels like you’re driving a proper Formula 1 car around here – that’s how it should be. I’m glad today it came together.”
Antonelli said he had started his lap with his tyres under temperature and described his session as “messy”.
It was a rare occurrence where the top four teams locked out the top eight in a two-by-two configuration, Lewis Hamilton eight and a half hundredths ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. The Red Bull of Max Verstappen was just under a tenth behind the Ferraris as he went a tenth faster than his teammate Isack Hadjar. The top four teams covered by just under six and a half tenths.
Hamilton, going into practice, revealed he did not test the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the simulator, and the move seems to have paid off as he beat Leclerc in a competitive session for the first time since China. But like Shanghai, Montreal is a circuit which suits his driving style, holding the joint records with seven Grand Prix wins and six pole positions.
Verstappen, once again struggling with a car he said was “jumping” at the rear, was a tenth clear of teammate Hadjar. Arvid Lindblad was best of the rest, putting his Racing Bull ninth over a tenth and a quarter behind the sister team, as he went eight tenths faster than the Williams of Carlos Sainz, completing the top ten.
But both Racing Bulls and Williams had only one car take part in sprint qualifying. Liam Lawson suffered a hydraulic failure, and Alex Albon crashed after hitting a groundhog during practice.
Sainz had made it through to SQ3 after going half a tenth faster than the Audi duo, with Nico Hulkenberg going just over three hundredths faster than his teammate, Gabriel Bortoletto. Franco Colapinto was nearly eight hundredths behind his fellow South American, as he was a quarter of a second ahead of the Haas duo, with Esteban Ocon nearly two-tenths faster than teammate Ollie Bearman.
There was mixed success for Aston Martin; Fernando Alonso got the team out of SQ1 or Q1 for the first time this season after going four hundredths faster than Sergio Perez. However, his late crash after locking up and not bailing at Turn Three in the final two minutes of SQ1 saw him unable to take part, and those in the bottom six were unable to improve.
Aston Martin has no upgrades on their car for this race and attributed the improved performance to Alonso himself. Alonso said, “Unfortunately I locked up the fronts into Turn Three and I was a passenger. We were fighting above our expectations before that incident. We’ll see what we can learn tomorrow with the sprint and another qualifying session.”
Perez splitting the Aston Martins after going three and a half tenths faster than former teammate Lance Stroll, who was on a lap when his teammate brought out the red flag. Pierre Gasly was over two tenths faster than Valtteri Bottas. As mentioned, Lawson and Albon did not set a time to complete the field.
