CANADIAN GP – George Russell beats Max Verstappen to pole by a tenth and a half, as McLaren struggle
George Russell has beaten Max Verstappen by just over a tenth and a half to secure pole for the Canadian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver found a quarter of a second on his final run in Q3 to set a 10.899 to put himself ahead of the Red Bull and Oscar Piastri, Russell has appeared to be in the mix through practice and that continued in qualifying.
The Englishman topped Q2 then continued to be in the mix allowing him to take back-to-back poles in Montreal and for the first time in his career. Verstappen was over half a tenth ahead of the McLaren of Piastri in one of the closest qualifying sessions of the season. The four-time champion looked to be a threat throughout the session.
Russell snatched pole away from Verstappen by a tenth and a half, moments after the Red Bull driver had himself taken pole away from Piastri. It sets up interesting opening corners following the latest spat between Russell and Verstappen in Barcelona two weeks ago during the race.
Verstappen was penalised ten seconds and given three licence penalty points for deliberately colliding with Russell in the closing stages of the race and is one licence point away from a race ban. Russell had felt on arriving at the track on Saturday morning that he had a good chance of setting pole, and his confidence was well placed.
Like Verstappen using the medium tyre for his final lap, Russell said it was “one of the most exhilarating laps of my life”
He added: “I swear, every corner I was looking at my lap-time delta on my steering wheel and I was going 0.1secs quicker, 0.1secs quicker. I got to the last corner and I was 0.6secs up and I thought: ‘This lap’s mighty.’ It felt like the car was on rails. I am so pleased with pole.”
Verstappen said: “I felt quite good all weekend. The car was in a good window. This track is quite cool. It feels like a big go-kart on the kerbs. You need to be quite efficient on the straights, which I think we are. The tough choice was the tyres and I think we chose the right ones.
But Lando Norris could only manage seventh after a messy Q3, which saw him abort his first run which appeared to then dent his confidence on the final run. He lost his final lap after being forced to bail out at The Wall of Champions chicane to avoid crashing into the wall, he had also had a messy second run.
Norris put it down to ‘a couple of big mistakes’, adding “We’ve clearly not been as quick as normal. I think that’s just because of the layout of the track. I think the cars have been performing relatively well and I was happy through all of qualifying.”
Kimi Antonelli put his Mercedes fourth slightly further back as he was nearly two-tenths behind the McLaren as the Italian went a tenth and a quarter faster than Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes has looked to have their best weekend of the season, which the Italian underlined, arguably leading the top four teams though it has proved to be another tight weekend.
Hamilton put his Ferrari half a tenth ahead of Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard starting from sixth the team’s best qualifying of the season. That further confirms the progress the team have made since introducing an upgrade at Imola a month ago. Alonso said, “We maximised for sure the potential of the car. I feel happier with the car since Imola, since the upgrade.”
Norris was over half a tenth faster than the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, with Isack Hadjar four hundredths ahead of Alex Albon completing the top ten. Ferrari once again struggled to convert what looked to be strong pace in practice into challenging at the front in qualifying.
Hadjar was later given a three-place grid penalty after the stewards found him guilty of impeding Williams Carlos Sainz during Qualifying. In Q1, the Frenchman was on a cool down lap and impeded Sainz as he tired to improve on his last attempt
Sainz arrived at the rear of Hadjar’s car under braking for the Turn Six-Seven chicane, compromising his line and contributing to the Spaniard dropping out
Yuki Tsunoda put his Red Bull eleventh missing out on the final part of qualifying after going just under a tenth behind Hadjar in Q2. But the Japanese driver will start last after a ten-place grid penalty for a red flag infringement during FP3.
Stewards rejected Tsunoda’s explanations for his actions, saying Piastri was not going slow enough to excuse the breaking of a safety rule. Tsunoda was four hundredths ahead of Franco Colapinto, who had his best qualifying of the season.
The Alpine driver was four hundredths faster than the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg, with the Haas duo slowest in Q2 with Ollie Bearman nearly three hundredths ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon.
Gabriel Bortoleto was the fastest of those knocked out in Q1, the Sauber driver eight thousandths behind Ocon as he went just over a hundredth faster than Sainz. Lance Stroll will start his home Grand Prix from eighteenth after going eight thousandths ahead of Liam Lawson, with Pierre Gasly completing the field.
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