George Russell secured his second career pole position in Formula 1 in Montreal after Max Verstappen set an identical lap time to him in Q3.
Russell posted a 1’12.000 in Q3 which Verstappen matched at the chequered flag. Despite the pair being on identical lap times, Russell earned pole position by virtue of having set the time first.
The two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will start third and fourth. Neither Ferrari driver reached Q3 and Sergio Perez failed to progress beyond Q1 for the second weekend in a row.
Q1
The circuit was dry in the minutes leading up to the start of the first session of qualifying, but with an 80% chance of rain during the hour, it seemed a matter of time before the conditions would change.
Zhou Guanyu led the field out of the pit lane for the start of Q1 ahead of the two Alpine drivers. McLaren reported some spots of rain at turns seven and eight to their drivers, but track remained dry.
Max Verstappenwas the first driver to complete a push lap with a 1’15.194, but that was immediately beaten by Lando Norris and then Lance Stroll, who both posted 1’14.5s. Norris improved to a 1’13.541, but that was beaten by Verstappen, who went quickest of all by a tenth of a second.
Stroll clattered the Wall of Champions at the exit of the final chicane, but appeared not to have done too much damage to his car as he was able to continue. Oscar Piastri was upset at being held up by Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda at the exit of turn four – the incident was noted by the stewards but they decided no further investigation was necessary.
In the final three minutes, Sergio Perez was the headline name sat in the drop zone, well away from safety in 19th. Perez improved but up to 12th place, putting team mate Verstappen on the bubble in 15th. Verstappen posted the quickest time of all on his final lap, taking him to the top of the times.
As drivers continued to improve at the chequered flag, Perez sank further down the order. When Alexander Albon jumped to fourth on his final lap, that dropped Perez into elimination in 16th and ensuring he would fail to reach Q3 for the third consecutive race weekend.
Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg and Zhou joined the Red Bull driver in elimination.
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Q1 result
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Q2
Rain appeared to be imminent as the lights at the end of pit lane went green for the start of the…
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