Russell leads Mercedes front row to Canadian Sprint pole

Mercedes’ George Russell has taken pole position for the first-ever Canadian Grand Prix sprint race, locking out a front row for the Silver Arrows.

Feature image credit: Pirelli

Mercedes’ Russell will take pole position for Saturday’s sprint race after the Briton controlled the timing sheets in Sprint Qualifying in Montreal. Despite being outpaced by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in SQ1, the Kings Lynn driver found the pace to bounce back, taking the best times in the final two-thirds of the qualifying session.

Kimi Antonelli looked to be in a position to challenge for the top spot, but the Italian championship leader couldn’t find the pace to dethrone his teammate. Ultimately, the Italian star missed that edge to beat Russell as he finished second overall, 0.068s off the pace of pole.

Hamilton looked to be one of the few challengers for pole position, hovering around the pole position time.

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However, the seven-time world champion fell down the order, finishing fifth overall, behind both Mercedes and McLaren cars, but ahead of his teammate, Charles Leclerc (sixth).

Throughout qualifying, there was only one interruption as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso nose-dived into the barrier at the end of SQ1, having locked up in the braking zone of turn three. Fortunately, Alonso was okay in the incident and was able to climb out of his car.

Following the crash, Alonso was placed into SQ2, qualifying P14 at the time of the incident, with only one minute and 46 seconds left on the clock. When the session resumed at the end of SQ1, seven cars went out and only three managed to make it to the timing line to complete a timed lap: Hamilton, Sainz and Stroll.

After Hamilton and Sainz were granted positions in SQ2, the pair abandoned their lap whilst Stroll pulled into the pit lane, knowing his lap was not good enough to proceed.

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There were two non-starters of the session, in Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson and Williams’ Alexander Albon, who ultimately qualified P22 and P21, respectively. Having failed to set a lap time in sprint qualifying and failing to set a lap time inside the 107% rule, a request to the stewards to allow the pair to race is expected.

The two drivers did not participate in the event after the two suffered problems in FP1, with Lawson suffering mechanical woes whilst Albon ran over a groundhog, resulting in a heavy shunt into the barrier.

So, who finished where after sprint qualifying?

The Provisional Sprint Grid

22 – Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls – No laps

21 – Alexander Albon, Williams – No laps

20 – Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac +2.977s

19 – Pierre Gasly, Alpine +2.753s

18 – Lance Stroll, Aston Martin +2.465s

17 – Sergio Perez, Cadillac +2.113s

16. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin – No lap time set in SQ2

15. Ollie Bearman, Haas +2.279s

14. Esteban Ocon, Haas +1.902s

13. Franco Colapinto, Alpine +1.676s

12. Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi +1.601s

11. Nico Hulkenberg, Audi +1.569

10 – Carlos Sainz, Williams +1.571s

9 – Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls +0.772s

8 – Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing +0.640s

7 – Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing +0.539s

6 – Charles Leclerc, Ferrari +0.445s

5 – Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari +0.361s

4 – Oscar Piastri, McLaren +0.334s

3 – Lando Norris, McLaren +0.315s

2 – Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes +0.068s

1 – George Russell, Mercedes – 1m 12.965s

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Antonelli leads Mercedes one-two in incident-filled FP1 at Montreal
• Liam Lawson referred to stewards for technical breach at Canadian Grand Prix
• “Absolute Bull***t” says Komatsu on Ocon rumours
• Lawson hopeful Racing Bulls upgrade can boost Canadian GP challenge
• Ocon denies Haas exit rumours ahead of Canadian GP
• Hamilton on F1 future: “get used to it”
• Russell looks to hit back in Canada after Miami setback

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