George Russell secured sprint pole position at the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday, edging his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli by 0.068 seconds in a session where he posted the fastest time on both qualifying runs.
Russell came into the Montreal weekend trailing Antonelli by 20 points in the championship standings. Antonelli had won three of the first four races of the season. Russell acknowledged the stretch had been difficult. "It feels great after a tough Miami but I never doubted myself," he said. "I always knew what I could do. This is an amazing circuit, high grip, and feels like you're driving a proper grand prix car."
Mercedes brought a major upgrade to the car for this race. Russell said it made a clear difference. "It's definitely feeling great," he said. "The team have done a great job to bring this forward. Pleased to have it on the car and pleased to be back in P1. It's been a little while but still a big focus for tomorrow."
Antonelli said his session was hampered from the start. He told reporters his tyres were under temperature at the beginning of his lap and described the session as "messy."
McLaren also brought an upgrade to Montreal, their second in consecutive races, but it was not enough to close the gap to Mercedes on a circuit where the world champions have historically struggled. Norris qualified third, 0.315 seconds off pole, just 0.019 seconds ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri in fourth.
Norris said the team had been concerned after the morning session. "A good surprise. After this morning, we were a little bit worried about how far off we were. More just the lack of confidence in the car," he said. "But we changed some things on the car and seemed to make a good improvement. I could have got more out of it, but not enough to close the gap to the guys ahead."
Ferrari and Red Bull each placed two cars in the top eight. Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth, 0.361 seconds off pole, with Charles Leclerc sixth. Max Verstappen qualified seventh, ahead of Isack Hadjar in eighth. Hamilton shared that he had chosen not to use the Ferrari simulator before this race, believing it had been leading to incorrect setup decisions. "Probably the best qualifying session we've had for some time," he said. "Great work with the engineers. The car felt really fantastic from P1. We made just subtle changes going into qualifying."
He added: "I was having so much fun out there, and the fact I didn't do the sim and it was the best I felt all year. I chose a set-up we've not used before and it's transformed the car for me."
Verstappen was reported to be struggling with a car he described as "jumping" during the session. The sprint race in Montreal is scheduled for Saturday.
