George Russell put his Mercedes on sprint pole at the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday, edging teammate Kimi Antonelli by 0.068 seconds in a session that saw the two Mercedes drivers separated from the rest of the field at the top.
Russell has been 20 points behind Antonelli in the drivers' standings after four races, with the Italian winning three of those four grands prix. Montreal offered Russell a chance to reverse that trend, and he delivered, going fastest on both runs in the final qualifying segment.
"It feels great after a tough Miami but I never doubted myself," Russell 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 significant upgrade package to Montreal, and Russell said the difference was clear. "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 he began his final lap with his tires under temperature and called his session messy. He will line up second for the sprint.
McLaren also came to Canada with an upgrade, their second in consecutive races, but it was not enough to close the gap to Mercedes on this circuit. Lando Norris was third, 0.315 seconds off pole, with Oscar Piastri fourth, 0.019 seconds behind his teammate.
"A good surprise," Norris said. "After this morning, we were a little bit worried about how far off we were. More just the lack of confidence in the car. 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."
Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth for Ferrari, 0.361 seconds off pole. He was 0.084 seconds ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc. Hamilton shares the record for most wins at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with Michael Schumacher, and he said skipping the Ferrari simulator before this race had been the right call.
"Probably the best qualifying session we've had for some time," Hamilton said. "Great work with the engineers. The car felt really fantastic from P1. We made just subtle changes going into qualifying. Q1 and Q2 was looking good and then I don't know what the others are able to turn up a bit more, but I am just happy to be in the fight. 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."
Max Verstappen qualified seventh, behind Leclerc, with Red Bull's Isack Hadjar eighth. Verstappen described his car as jumping during the session, according to BBC Sport.
The Canadian Grand Prix sprint is scheduled for Saturday.
