F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Although McLaren's Lando Norris set the benchmark in final practice, Mercedes driver George Russell surprised his rivals by bolting on a set of medium tyres to snatch a last gasp pole position from reigning champion Max Verstappen. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers what teams and drivers had to say.

Mercedes

George Russell, 1st, 1:10.899
"That is the only time I’ve ever had goosebumps after a qualifying lap! I went around the first corner and was one tenth up and after that, the car just felt like it was on rails.

"I felt so confident pushing the limits and we ultimately went six tenths quicker than our first lap in Q3. It was pretty special and something that I will remember for a long time. Crossing the line, I felt that surely it was pole position and I’m very happy that it was!

"It's a short run to turn one so hopefully we can put ourselves in a good position and go from there. We will focus on ourselves and hopefully show similar pace as to what we had on the long run in FP2. It is rarely as simple as that though, so we will have to be at our best if we want to fight for victory tomorrow."

"That was a better Qualifying session than recent races and I felt a lot more comfortable on the Soft C6 tyre. It took a little while for me to get into the rhythm and that meant I burnt through both of my new Medium tyres before Q3.

"Being on the used tyre in that final segment meant I was at a slight disadvantage for my final lap. The grip began to fade away in the final sector and lost quite a bit of time. My lap wasn’t particularly great but, even with that, I ended up P4. That is not a bad starting position and hopefully we can fight at the front.

"The other factor for us to consider is the weather. It has been slightly warmer than on Friday today and yet we still performed well. It may be hotter tomorrow and that will have an impact on how the tyres react. Our long run in FP2 looked competitive though and I felt good in the car. Hopefully we can show similar good pace and focus on the cars ahead."

Red Bull

“Overall this weekend has been quite positive for us. As soon as I jumped in the car in FP1 the balance was there and I was fairly happy with our overall performance. FP2 was slightly trickier but in Qualifying we made the right call with the tyres as we felt better with the mediums. I feel like the balance of the car was there and we maximised our performance.

We need to understand more about the degradation of our tyres and what was going on there as we were missing overall grip to fight for Pole. However, I don’t think there was much more we could have really done today and I’m happy with second. Hopefully tomorrow we can have a good start and look after our tyres. Our car can be trickier in the corners but there will be a long race ahead of us and hopefully it will be a strong race for us."

“Tough day overall for us. We had an issue during FP3 so unfortunately we missed a lot of valuable running time during the final practice session. We brought some upgrades from yesterday and it was definitely a positive switch, I could feel more speed in the car and I have identified where I can improve on certain corners.

"I still feel like I haven’t had the time to build full confidence in the car, especially as the car behaviour was different than in FP2. I only had a few push laps with the changes before we had Qualifying, but The Team did a good job with the balance of the car. Considering the changes, P11 was a decent result and we only narrowly missed out on Q3.

"Unfortunately, the penalty from FP3 dropped us to P20. It was an unfortunate circumstance but it is what it is. I will do what I can tomorrow to make up positions during the race, but we were hoping to be in a better starting position than we are."

McLaren

"I’m pleased with third today, that’s not often been the case this year, but I'll definitely take it this weekend, especially after some challenging moments in practice. It's good to see the turnaround we’ve made this afternoon and now we'll work hard overnight to carry that momentum into tomorrow’s race with the aim of keeping things consistent as we challenge to gain positions at the front."

"A tough Qualifying and not the result I was after. We were lacking a little bit of pace to the quickest cars, and I've pushed a bit too much to try and find that. The attention is now on tomorrow and working hard with the team to recover positions and move forward to secure strong Championship points in the race."

Ferrari

"I felt at ease in the car in FP3 and in qualifying, and I believe the car was good enough for pole today. So naturally, I am disappointed with a P8.

"I was ready to put it all together on my last lap in Q3, but unfortunately I found Isack (Hadjar) ahead of me in Turn 6 and with the dirty air, you lose quite a lot of downforce on a track like this. I lost the rear and had to abort my lap.

"We need a good start tomorrow and will fight to work our way to the front, hoping to finish on the podium."

"P5 is a solid result after some interesting practice and qualifying sessions. We’re up against cars that have brought upgrades, so the challenge is on, but I’ll be giving it everything to fight for a podium.

"With the right strategy and strong race pace, I think it’s possible. We’re staying hopeful for tomorrow, but we know it’s not going to be easy."

Aston Martin

"The job today has been done and I'm pleased with P6. I really enjoying driving around this circuit and it's always a fun challenge. The car felt good in Qualifying and I was able to push the car to the limit.

"Since Imola I have felt a bit more comfortable with understanding the car and I am happy for that. We have to be realistic that it will be tricky tomorrow with a lot of fast cars around us, but we will try to be in the top ten and score some more points."

"It was a disappointing day for me. We looked strong on the Softs in the beginning of the session and then got unlucky with the red flag, there wasn't enough time to warm up the Medium tyre and get it in the right window.

"We lost a lot of time there so starting from P18 tomorrow. The car felt okay, we'll see what we can do in the race - making up positions and getting closer to the points isn't going to be easy but overtaking at this track is possible."

Racing Bulls

"I didn’t feel happy with the car today, as the balance wasn’t really together, but despite this, I think we did a solid job to bring the car to Q3. I feel like the pure pace is still good, but overall, during this weekend, it has been much harder to put a lap together compared to previous tracks.

"In Q1, I was told Carlos had aborted his lap, whilst instead, he was still in a push lap. That was unfortunate and I’m really sorry for him. We’re going to be aggressive like always in the race tomorrow, but it will be important to keep an eye on the tyres situation as the graining is heavy here, even if the track is getting better day after day.

"I can expect overtaking to be difficult in the race, but I think it’s going to be an interesting race and hopefully, we’ll still be able to fight for points.”

"We've been struggling to make the tyres work on the first lap all weekend. We committed to doing a build lap at the start of Q1 to keep them in the right window, however we didn't do a build lap for the last run. This meant we didn't have much grip through the lap, which is a shame as the car has been fast all weekend. I really enjoy the track and, as always, will be giving it my all tomorrow. We keep pushing.”

Williams

"A frustrating Qualifying session. We should be top six or seven - that’s the pace we’ve been showing all weekend - so today has been a bit of a bogey session at the wrong time, unfortunately. The wind has changed 180 degrees from yesterday to today and that changes the balance of the car.

"We struggled as well with the tyres and the result was us falling back a lot from yesterday. With the bodywork issue we had in Q1, the team did a fantastic job to get the car ready and did a lot of work in a short amount of time. We’ve got some work to do tonight and ongoing work to understand the C6 tyre, as we need to get on top of that."

"There isn't much to say. I spent pretty much all of Sector 1 behind the VCARB, to the point we nearly collided. I was 20 milliseconds away from Q2, so that pretty much ruins the weekend. It’s incredibly disappointing."

Alpine

“It’s a painful one to take to be out in Q1, especially as the car had pace and potential for more today. We were on course for the top ten in Q1 before the red flag came out, so we had to abort our lap, which was looking quite strong and safely through.

"On the final set of Softs, we were just not in the right tyre temperature window and we struggled for grip and it was a messy lap with so much sliding. We need to review what happened as the jump between the tyre sets was frustrating and, clearly, we had much more lap time than we were able to show.

"The car was good and we should definitely have both cars further up the grid. We will see what we can do better and also look into our options on strategy tomorrow as it could be a long race with opportunities to take.”

“Looking at where we were with the car yesterday, and at previous races, you can say it has been a good result and a better day on my side of the garage. I was pushing hard and felt more comfortable and at ease with the car. Looking at how close it was, we had potential to make it into Q3.

"The tyre choices up and down the grid were mixed and for me with the Medium tyre we struggled in the first few corners but recovered time later in the lap. I touched the wall on my final run, losing a little bit of time, which was why I apologised to the team over the radio. Overall, I’m happy with the progression since yesterday.

"I’m still finding my feet in the team and understanding where I need to go with the set-up. We made some positive changes overnight and a good job with the engineers who have been supporting me a lot. Hopefully we can carry some momentum into tomorrow, especially given how the car felt on the long runs on Friday.”

Kick Sauber

“It was a really tight field out there today in qualifying—just incredibly small margins separating the cars. We made it into Q2 and finished P13, which I’m happy with given how close everything was. With penalties ahead, I’ll be starting from P11 tomorrow, so that puts us in a decent position.

“Looking ahead to tomorrow's race, we’ve got a solid foundation to build on. The long-run pace in practice looked decent, and with a slight rise in temperatures expected, things could get a bit more interesting. It’s going to be a competitive race, no doubt, but from where we’re starting, we should be in the mix to fight for points.”

"I’m obviously quite disappointed not to make it into Q2 today, especially by such an incredibly small margin. It was very tight out there — we missed it by just seven milliseconds, and on a track like this, that’s nothing. It’s a very short lap, so the gaps end up super close. I think the lap I did was okay, but not perfect: you can find this margin in any corner. In a field this tight, that perfect corner or that little detail can make all the difference.

“We knew coming into the weekend that this track probably wasn’t going to be as strong for us as Barcelona, just because of its characteristics. I did the best I could, and the pace felt like it was there, but in the end it just wasn’t enough. P16 is never where you want to be, but it is what it is — that’s what we could do today. I’m not going to sit here hitting myself over not making Q2.

"We don’t yet have the car to be comfortably in there every time, but we’re building on that, getting closer every weekend. Sometimes you get the lap right, sometimes you don’t, and today was one of those days where it just didn’t come together enough.

“Still, I think we’ve done a pretty decent job this weekend so far, and now we focus on tomorrow. I think the race pace should be okay. It’s hard to say, but anything can happen in Formula One. I’m happy that Nico made it into Q2 — now we’ll see what we can do from here and keep pushing."

Haas

“It was a bit of a tricky qualifying, for sure, especially on the used tyres at the end. I think it’s still all to play for. It’s a difficult one to get right because of the degradation of the tyres, it doesn’t warn you when it comes, so I hope we can get some opportunities through it all. We’ve done a good job this weekend with what we’ve got, but there’s still margin for us to do better.”

“It was a tough session, and I made my life a bit difficult in Q1 by missing the first lap, so I was a little bit on the backfoot but luckily managed to squeeze through on a good lap. In Q2, we only had used tyres so that made life harder, and the car was more edge on the used set. On the second lap, I tried to get a bit more out of it, but the tyres weren’t really there so we didn’t get to go through. I’m a bit disappointed with qualifying – the car really had a bit better performance than what showed on the timesheets – but I am still looking forward to the race tomorrow.”