George Russell seized pole position for montreal gp on Saturday at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, posting a 1 minute and 12.646-second lap for Mercedes. He did it after also winning the sprint race earlier in the afternoon, and the result puts him at the front of the Grand Prix of Canada grid in conditions that were hard to read.
Russell’s margin was tight. Kimi Antonelli finished 68 thousandths of a second back, while Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will start on the second row in that order. The front of the grid now belongs to Mercedes, with McLaren just behind it.
Russell at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve
The lap mattered because it was Russell’s third consecutive pole position in Montreal. He also had the faster afternoon run in the sprint, then backed it up in qualifying with one clean lap when others were fighting the track.
After qualifying, Russell said, “C’était juste une sensation incroyable, car j’ai fait un super tour.” He added, “Tout s’est parfaitement enchaîné. J’ai franchi la ligne d’arrivée, j’ai vu mon nom en tête du classement, et je savais que c’était gagné. Cette montée d’adrénaline, en l’espace de 10 secondes, c’est pour ça qu’on vit.”
Cool wind at Montreal
Qualifying came under cloudy skies, strong gusts and a track temperature of 31 degrees Celsius, down from 41 degrees Celsius at the same time the day before. Drivers had to manage tire warm-up carefully, and Russell himself said on the radio that he was struggling to bring his rear tires up to temperature and find grip.
Several drivers, including those at Mercedes and McLaren, used two warm-up laps before they tried a flying lap. Max Verstappen said in Q2, “Je suis incapable de monter mes gommes avant en température — c’est comme de piloter sur une patinoire”, and Charles Leclerc radioed, “Nous manquons totalement de rythme.”
Mercedes front row pressure
Antonelli’s run left him 68 thousandths of a second behind Russell, and he said afterward that he was satisfied overall but felt he had left something on the table. “Ç’a été très difficile de monter les pneus en température au bon moment ici ce week-end, mais je suis satisfait de manière générale,” he said, before adding, “J’ai tout de même l’impression d’avoir laissé quelque chose sur la table… Je dois tout de même donner le crédit à George, il a réalisé un très bon tour. J’ai hâte à demain.”
Norris said Mercedes had been difficult to beat, a blunt read on a qualifying session that rewarded the team that managed the tires best over one lap. With Russell on pole, Antonelli alongside him, and McLaren locked in on row two, the starting order in Montreal already has a clear shape before Sunday’s race begins.
