George Russell hails 'epic' F1 Canadian GP pole lap that 'came from nowhere'

George Russell was overjoyed with his last-minute pole lap at the Canadian Grand Prix after struggling for pace throughout qualifying.

Russell has been the driver to beat this weekend, topping sprint qualifying before winning the sprint race, after a tense battle with Mercedes team-mate and title rival Kimi Antonelli.

Despite taking pole on each of the last two visits to Montreal, Russell had been unable to match Antonelli and often found himself behind the McLaren and Ferrari drivers throughout the three phases, until his final lap in Q3.

"It was always challenging coming back from the sprint race," said Russell.

"The car feels very different. You're obviously into the qualifying format, and we made some changes as a team.

"We need to review if that was the right direction, but that last lap sort of came from nowhere, and it's such a great feeling where it was such a challenging session, and then to pull it all together on that last lap to throw yourself up the leaderboard was epic."

The weekend has been dry and warm so far, despite clouds masking the sun throughout Saturday. But for the race, rain is expected to fall, and Russell revealed that changes to cope with these conditions were to blame for his difficulties.

"We made some changes based on the forecast for tomorrow," he said.

"It may have hurt us a little bit for now. It just took the car out of sync a little bit, and both of us; Kimi was definitely more competitive than I in that session, but we weren't as clear ahead of everyone else as we were yesterday.

"So it was definitely a challenge, but I just managed to redial my driving in for that last lap and put it together."

After the sprint race, Mercedes discussed the rules of engagement with its drivers, with an agreement reached that no quarter will be given in the battle to be world champion.