Russell puts Mercedes on pole for Canadian Grand Prix
George Russell was overjoyed after taking pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver took it away from Verstappen in the dying seconds of today's qualifying while championship leader Oscar Piastri will start from 3rd on the grid.
Cars were out early even though the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a fairly short lap. Track evolution and managing traffic through the chicanes are important so some definitely were looking to get a lap in quickly.
Apart from the Haas and Sauber cars, Russell was out there soon as well and followed a minute later by the Ferrari duo. Both Mercedes soon jumped to the top of the timing sheet while the Ferrari drivers did a preparation lap, indicating the soft tyre needs a bit more time to get up to speed, at least on the Ferrrari cars.
The McLaren duo were immediately on the pace with Piastri susprisingly the faster of the two after all the time lost in FP3 due to clipping the Wall of Champions. Leclerc came to within a tenth of Piatri's time on his second lap on the softs while Stroll at that time sat in third thanks to a strong lap on softs. Alonso on the other hand used the medium tyre and went fourth fastest on his first atempt.
Halfway into the session Verstappen was the only one to not have set a time, but when he did, he immediately went fastest, 0.099s faster than the Australian McLaren.
After a cool down lap, Alonso then surprised by going faster still, 0.034s faster than Verstappen's best.
5 minutes from the end Albon was on another flyer after having dropped down the pecking order into 17th. Having shown promising pace earlier in the weekend the Williams then suddenly decided to shed some bodywork, leaving the entire left hand sidepod on the back straight. Albon continued but missed the final chicane and was unable to improve. The session was stopped with a red flag, enabling the track to be cleared of debris and Albon to return to the pits to try to fix the car and save quali. Carlos Sainz was notably in a similarly difficult position as only 16th at the time of the stoppage.
When the green light went on at the end of the pitlane to continue the session, 5 minutes and 30 seconds remained. Norris and Piastri were first in the queue. Norris was 12th only after a underwhelming first effort but then went purple in S1 and S2 to take the top spot while edging out Piastri who got into second. The Ferraris were next up on the road. Both improved on Alonso but the Spaniard recovered to 4th with another lap on the medium tyres. Only Kimi Antonelli was joining the Aston Martin driver at that time by preferring medium of soft.
Alonso continued on that set of tyres and actually set a purple S1 before backing out of that lap and returning to the pits. Albon saved himself with 7th best while Sainz got eliminated as he lost considerable time behind Isack Hadjar at Turn 5.
Q2 kicked off with Verstappen first out on track, seemingly taking inspiration from Alonso by going out on medium tyres, setting a lap that would prove faster than when both McLarens managed a couple moments later on softs. Leclerc followed suit and ended up 4th with Hamilton hundredths behind in 5th.
Alonso was up a minute later, this time on softs. The Spaniard had been very unhappy with the balance of his car on those tyres in FP3. This time around, and exactly like in final practice, he ended up 6th, a tenth behind Hamilton.
The two Mercedes however still had to set their laps at that time. When they had eventually done so, Russell stood in front of Alonso and Antonelli just behind him on the timing sheet.
4 minutes from the end Leclerc did a lonely lap on a fresh set of softs and beat Vertappen's earlier time to top the timing sheet, albeit once again with the tiniest of margins. Albon followed that up by improving to 7th on mediums.
In the final minutes every single driver who wasn't yet on track came back out. Verstappen had a strong first lap on softs but backed out of it. Antonelli returned to mediums and moved up into 8th, dropping Alonso down into 9th. The latter however also returned to the track and took a fresh set of medium tyres, moving himself up to 6th, 0.255s behind the new pace setter, George Russell, also on medium tyres.
The last part of qualifying therefore included two McLarens, two Mercedes, two Ferraris, joined by Alonso, Verstappen, Albon and Hadjar.
Leclerc was the first driver to complete his lap. Norris was next and ahead but backed out of the final chicane and thereby ruined his attempt. Piastri was happy to take over, only to be improved by Verstappen moments later by a narrow 0.025 seconds. Alonso was fourth fastest and Hamilton followed up in 6th, then Hadjar.
The Mercedes were again a bit out of sync and started their lap later. Russell was fastest of the two with the duo securing third and fourth. Norris slotted into 5th half a minute later with a second attempt on those soft tyres.
Albon was the last to complete his flying lap, going to 9th and faster only than Hadjar. The Williams driver was thereby the only one to use the medium compound tyre.
Hamilton returned to the track quickly, just behind Alonso as the Spaniard switched back to mediums. It was a strong lap for both with Hamilton going 4th and Alonso 5th fastest. This demoted Antonelli to 6th.
Leclerc subsequently put in an impressive first sector but then almost had a terminal moment in Turn 6 and backed out of his lap, blaming the event on Hadjar who was again not far ahead indeed.
Piastri then took provisional pole while Norris failed yet again. Verstappen crossed the line next and went fastest overall with a fresh set of mediums but then, last of all, Russell did it and took pole position for the first time this season. It was hanging in the air and it finally materialised for the Mercedes driver.
