Canadian GP Qualifying: Russell beats Verstappen, McLaren falter
F1 NewsSaturday, 14 June 2025 at 23:12
George Russell took pole position for the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix for the second time in a row beating Max Verstappen in the final moment of qualifying.
It was Russell's sixth Formula 1 career pole position and the fact that he will have Verstappen for company on the first row of the Canadian Grand Prix starting grid will make for a tasty race on Sunday especially as their Spanish Grand Prix incident is not yet forgotten.
But what was interesting is the fact that Russell and Verstappen both went for the Medium tyre on their final runs in Q3 opting not to run the softest C6 Pirelli tyre. the Briton beat the Dutchman by 0.160s.
McLaren did not deliver when it mattered. They struggled from the start of the weekend, especially Oscar Piastri, and while Lando Norris topped the final practice session, he messed up his first Q3 lap with an error in Turn 13 and couldn't recover after that.
Piastri ultimately was third fastest, 0.221s off the pace while Norris was only good for seventh in the sister McLaren.
"Not ideal," the Briton lamented. "Just too many mistakes. I hit the wall in the last lap. I had confidence, the car felt good today, I just made too many mistakes."
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, on his debut at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, managed to qualify fourth albeit over four tenth slower than his teammate.
Then came Lewis Hamilton, fifth fastest in the Ferrari, over six tenths off the pace, and ahead of Fernando Alonso who was a respectable sixth in the Aston Martin having posted his best time on Mediums as well and ahead of Norris in seventh.
Charles Leclerc, after some early promise in qualifying, was only eighth and will be ruing an error on his final Q3 flying lap and was ahead Isack Hadjar who was ninth and Alex Albon completed the top ten.
Albon survived a scare in Q1 when the engine cover of his Williams got ripped off, but he managed to return to the track after repairs and ultimately made it into the top ten while his teammate, Carlos Sainz was out in Q1.
Hadjar was under investigation for impeding Sainz in Q1 and from what we saw, the Frenchman will not keep his ninth place as a penalty is on its way.
What the top three said
Speaking to 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve after taking pole, Russell said: "Today was awesome!
"That last lap was probably one of the most exhilarating laps of my life because on my steering wheel you have the delta and I was seeing every corner I was one tenth quicker.
"I got into the last corner and I was six tenths up so I was like 'this lap is mighty'. Crossing the line and seeing we were P1 was a real surprise but I was so chuffed with it," he added.
Villeneuve had to ask how Russell planned to race Verstappen down into to Turn 1 especially as the latter is one penalty point away from a race ban so he responded: "We are mates, it's all good!
"I've got a few more points on my licence to play with. Let's see," the Mercedes driver joked in conclusion.
"I felt quite good all weekend," Verstappen added. "The car actually was in a good window. You need to quite efficient on the straights, which we are in general, so overall I'm quite happy with qualifying. The car was again working quite well.
"The tough choice was the tyres, which one to use," he said of his team's decision to go with the Mediums. "But I think we did the right thing [by using the medium]."
Asked whether starting from the second grid position was better in the run down to the first corner, the reigning F1 champion quipped: "I would always pick P1 as you always start a bit more forward!
"But it's fine, we will see what we can do tomorrow. I'm already very happy with that we achieved today, to be on the front row. Hopefully tomorrow we can have a solid race," he concluded.
Given his struggles so far this weekend, P3 must have been a decent result for Piastri who said: "After how practice went I'm pretty happy with myself. A nice turnaround.
"It was always the question, do we want the medium or soft for Q3? We went with the soft because we were having a lot of problems and wanted to keep things consistent.
"I'm pretty happy with third which is a bit different this year but I will definitely take it," the Australian concluded.
Q1: Albon loses his engine cover, but makes Q2
The clear and dry conditions continued as drivers jumped into their cars for the start of qualifying as track temperatures were 45 degrees Celsius with air temperature at 21 degrees.
The drivers lined up in the pitlane with Sainz and Albon leading the pack and without any time wasted all the cars were out on track once the green light was on.
Norris, Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen, Piastri, and Alonso remained behind, but not for long.
Most of the drivers were on the Soft tyre while Antonelli, Pierre Gasly, Franco Colapinto, and Alonso opted for the Medium compound.
Less than five minutes into the session, Oliver Bearman suffered a moment at Turn 1 and went through the run-off area up to Turn 2.
Russell led the timing screens early on but then the board started getting shuffled with Piastri jumping to the top while Leclerc was second and Lance Stroll third.
It wasn't until nine minutes were gone that Verstappen started his timed lap, which was a bit smart as the track was evolving massively. He went to the top from the first time of asking.
Piastri then had a moment at Turn 2. He went out of shape and deep but managed to keep his car out of the barriers.
The Alonso jumped to the top as the order with seven minutes remaining was: Alonso - Verstappen - Piastri - Hamilton - Russell - Leclerc - Stroll - Antonelli - Yuki Tsunoda - Hadjar - Liam Lawson - Norris - Colapinto - Gabriel Bortoleto - Sainz.
But then Albon's Williams let go of its engine covered that and spread debris all over the track with the session red flagged.
Albon returned to the Williams garage as his mechanics frantically started working on repairing his car to send him out again.
The session was restarted with five and a half minutes on the clock with drives lining up in the pitlane ready to go again.
Williams managed to send Albon out in the final three minutes. He was 18th in the timing screens at that moment.
In the end, Norris was fastest with a 1:11.826, 0.113s clear of Piastri in second as Hamilton was third, 0.013s behind the Australian.
The rest of the top 15 were: Leclerc - Verstappen - Alonso - Russell - Albon - Hadjar - Colapinto - Antonelli - Bearman - Hulkenberg - Tsunoda - Esteban Ocon.
Those that didn't make Q2 were led by Bortoleto who was 16th missing out by 0.007s to Ocon with Sainz in 17th.
The Spaniard was dangerously impeded by Hadjar keeping in mind his final lap was not really a good one. A penalty for Hadjar was imminent.
In 18th came Stroll with a baffled Liam Lawson in 19th as Pierre Gasly was only 20th.
Q2: Tsunoda out and has a ten-place grid penalty
Without any delay, Q2 started with Verstappen bolting on the Medium tyres for his first run while Norris and Piastri followed on Softs.
Verstappen went fastest with Norris second and Piastri third. Colapinto went fourth as Leclerc was down the road on his lap with Hamilton following. Both Ferraris were on the Softs.
Russell took his time before heading out on track and did so with less than nine minutes remaining with Soft compound bolted to his Mercedes. Antonelli followed.
With the first round of runs out of the way, the order was: Verstappen - Norris - Piastri - Leclerc - Hamilton - Russell - Alonso - Antonelli - Tsunoda - Bearman.
In the drop zone were: Colapinto - Hadjar - Ocon - Hulkenberg - Albon.
With almost six minutes remaining from Q2, the second runs started and in the end, Russell was the fastest driver setting his best lap, a 1:11.570, on the Medium tyre with Norris 0.029s behind him in second on the Softs.
Leclerc was third fastest in the Ferrari on Softs while Verstappen ran only one lap and was fourth fastest on the Medium.
The rest: Piastri - Alonso - Hamilton - Albon - Antonelli - Hadjar.
Out of Q2: Tsunoda - Colapinto - Hulkenberg - Bearman - Ocon.
Tsunoda will have to serve a ten-place grid penalty for a Red-Flag-infringement in the final practice session. Replay showed Russell overtaking the Japanese driver at the pitlane exit.
The Red Bull driver radioed his team demanding a penalty for the Mercedes driver. Let's see what the stewards think.
Q3: Russell takes pole once again, on Mediums!
The final ten cars made their way out on track for the final shootout on Montreal's Saturday afternoon. All the driver went out on the Soft tyres.
Leclerc posted the first lap time and went fastest while Norris had to bail out after a mistake in Turn 13 but Piastri went to the top as Alonso was third and Hamilton was fourth.
Then Verstappen went to the top of the timing screens, 0.029s clear of Piastri. Verstappen then complained about a heavy steering, something he suffered from on Friday.
"Let's reset and remember your braking references," Norris' race engineer told him after the mistake.
Russell then went third fastest with Antonelli in fourth as Norris went for a second lap trying to put in a banker and was only fifth.
So it was Verstappen on provisional pole with the order: Verstappen - Piastri - Russell - Russell - Antonelli - Norris - Leclerc - Alonso - Hamilton - Albon - Hadjar.
With less than four minutes remaining, the final runs of Q3 were on with Alonso and Albon bolting the Medium tyres on their cars something Verstappen and Russell also did.
Leclerc made a mistake on his second attempt while Norris was still getting instructions from his engineer.
Piastri went fastest with Norris not improving but Verstappen then retakes the lead and pole position for the second time in a row in Montreal.
In the end, the order was: Russell - Verstappen - Piastri - Antonelli - Hamilton - Alonso - Norris - Leclerc - Hadjar - Albon.
Canadian GP Qualifying Provisional Classification
Latest News
Loading
