Mercedes-AMG’s George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen posted identical 1’12.000 times during the qualifying session of the Canadian Grand Prix, but Russell earned pole position for the race on Sunday because he set his time earlier in the final session. The crowd fell nearly silent as Verstappen took a final shot in the closing seconds of Q3 to set a new fast lap, and an audible gasp followed by applause confirmed that his tying time put the two drivers on equal footing but with Russell ahead on the grid.
“It’s been a great day! It was such a tight fight for pole position,” Russell said. “The previous few races I’ve been a matter of hundredths of a second behind the car ahead, so it’s nice to be on the upside of that today! In the end, Q3 was difficult. I did my best lap of the session in Q2, and I didn’t improve on my last lap in Q3. I wasn’t sure therefore whether I had taken pole position as I crossed the line.”
McLaren finished strong with Lando Norris taking third — just two hundredths of a second off pole — and Oscar Piastri right behind in fourth. Team RB’s Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Mercedes-AMG’s Lewis Hamilton.
Ferrari had a disappointing qualifying session, both of its drivers failing to get out of Q2 and into the top 10. Charles Leclerc will start 11th, his teammate Carlos Sainz directly behind in 12th.
The full Canadian Grand Prix qualifying results:
- George Russell
- Max Verstappen
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Fernando Alonso
- Lewis Hamilton
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Lance Stroll
- Alexander Albon
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Logan Sargeant
- Kevin Magnussen
- Pierre Gasly
- Sergio Perez
- Valtteri Bottas
- Esteban Ocon
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Zhou Guanyu