George Russell ends Kimi Antonelli’s pole streak at F1 Canadian GP
George Russell beat Mercedes F1 team-mate Kimi Antonelli to pole in Canada.
George Russell made it two pole positions in as many days as he pipped Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli in qualifying at Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix.
It had been a scruffy Q3 for Mercedes but Russell saved his best lap to the very end as he edged out Antonelli by 0.068 seconds to take his third consecutive pole at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The Mercedes pair will once again share the front row of the grid, and all eyes will be on them in Sunday’’s grand prix after they clashed twice in Saturday’s sprint race.
2026 F1 Canadian Grand Prix: Full qualifying results
It has been an important bounce back weekend so far from Russell, who won the sprint to reduce his championship deficit to Antonelli to 18 points.
"We made some changes and we need to review if that was the right direction," Russell said.
"That last lap came from nowhere. It was such a great feeling when it was such a challenging session and you pull it altogether on that last lap to throw yourselves up the leaderboard is epic.
"We made some changes based on the forecast for tomorrow. It may have hurt us a bit for now. It put the car out of sync a little bit.
"Kimi was more competitive than I and we weren't as clear ahead of everyone else as yesterday, so it was a challenge but I redialled my driving and put it together."
Reigning world champion Lando Norris put his McLaren third ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri, with Lewis Hamilton fifth in his Ferrari.
Max Verstappen headed Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar in P6, with the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc eighth, four-tenths adrift of Russell in a closer qualifying than we have come to expect in 2026.
F1 rookie Arvid Lindblad took a strong ninth for Racing Bulls, ahead of Alpine’s Franco Colapinto who rounded out the top-10.
Nico Hulkenberg again qualified 11th ahead of Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and his Audi team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto.
Pierre Gasly failed to join his team-mate in the top-10 shootout as he ended up 14th after picking up floor damage to his Alpine, with Carlos Sainz putting his Williams 15th.
The two Haas of Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon will line up from 16th and 17th, while the second Williams of Alex Albon was dumped out in the first part of qualifying in P18.
Fernando Alonso qualified 19th for Aston Martin, ahead of Sergio Perez’s Cadillac and home favourite Lance Stroll, who avoided crashing at Turn 3.
Stroll will form the back row of the grid for Sunday’s grand prix with Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas, who was slowest of all in 22nd.
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