And here is Giles Richards’ verdict:
Russell has admitted he has had a “turbulent” opening to the season but he delivered an absolutely flawless lap to thread the needle on the demanding street circuit that flows at high-speed across the Île Notre-Dame. The track rewards commitment and precision but is unforgiving of error and the 28-year-old judged it to perfection.
Read it all:
Right, Giles Richards’ report will be along shortly. Thanks for following on, and here’s to a good race tomorrow.
Andrea Stella, the McLaren principal, looks quietly pleased with the day’s work, but acknowledges losing time on the straights.
Here we have the same top three from sprint qualifying and from the sprint race, the only difference across the three sessions being that Norris was P2 in the sprint race.
David Croft points out the margin to Antonelli, 0.068, is the same as yesterday.
Russell was so cool there, putting what had gone wrong out of mind.
It was some sprint race, it was some qualifying session. Russell really did come “last minute out of nowhere”, as he said. It’s his third straight Montreal pole.
Russell is asked if the gloves will be off tomorrow between him and Antonelli. “No, we’ve had a good chat since this morning and we’re both racing drivers, we both know what to do, we both respect one another, so we’ll go racing. We hope we’re just battling, the two of us, but we saw today how competitive everybody else is. Tomorrow looks to be wet, that’s going to be a whole new challenge as well. So to be honest, it’s not really what we’re thinking about now. We just want to ensure we can be standing on the top step.”
Updated
Here’s our top 10:
1. George Russell (Mercedes) 1:12.578
2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.068
3. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.151
4. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.203
5. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.290
6. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.329
7. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +0.357
8. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.398
9. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +0.702
10. Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1.119
I was wrong, Verstappen was P6 not P7. That will teach me to snark.
Norris again third fastest, as with SQ3. He is pleased to be closer to Mercedes.
Mercedes made changes looking towards tomorrow’s weather, he says. Antonelli says it’s been very difficult with tyres all weekend.
“It’s always challenging coming back from the sprint race,” says Russell. “To throw yourself up the leaderboard was epic.”
Up-and-coming endurance racer Max Verstappen doesn’t look happy with P7.
“It’s the most exhilarating feeling in the world when it comes last minute out of nowhere,” says Russell.
Russell takes pole from Antonelli!
Confirmed Mercedes lockout and boy is Russell pleased.
Russell fastest! Mercedes one-two! Superb from the sprint winner.
Norris second, Piastri third. Russell flying though.
Antonelli fastest by 0.083!
Antonelli is go for a flyer. He has the last three poles. He goes fastest in the first sector.
Russell has a clear circuit but is only P3. He still has time for another lap.
Barely five minutes left and we have a McLaren-Ferrari front row, Norris-Hamilton.
Updated
Russell is down in 10th at present with no real time. But he is back out there.
Antonelli four tenths off the pace, Russell pits. Brundle wonders if he touched a wall.
Hamilton splits the McLarens, Leclerc manages fourth.
Max Verstappen goes faster than Hadjar, then Norris pips Piastri.
Sadly, Pierre Gasly hit a marmot in Q1 which did more damage than first thought, leading to his Q2 problems.
Off we go …
Updated
Just 0.003 between Antonelli and Russell in Q2.
Charles Leclerc sounds almost distraught at being eighth: “I’m completely off the pace. Q3 is either in the wall or P8. We just need to make sure, give me clean air. I don’t care about whatever else, just clean air. That’s all that matters.” Franco Colapinto sounds like he just won the playoff final having coming in 10th.
Updated
Q2 eliminations
And it finished with Hulkenberg, Lawson, Bortoleto, Gasly, Sainz and Bearman in the drop zone. Antonelli opted not to go flying again, safely through.
Russell up to fifth, just behind Antonelli, who will have the final say in Q2.
Hadjar fastest, into the 1:12s! Less than two tenths across the top five.
Hamilton flying and fastest, Leclerc struggling.
Hulkenberg, Sainz, Lawson, Bortoleto, Gasly and Bearman in the drop zone.
Russell makes a mess at turn one, goes straight across. Not much time to improve on eighth. Will he need to?
Leclerc has more problems, slow to reach the pits. Will he have time for a warm-up lap?
Leclerc down in 11th. Still more than six minutes to go, but his next lap only brings ninth.
Hadjar once again shows he’s a proper Red Bull driver, briefly going second before Norris pips him.
Antonelli appreciably faster than Russell. The Italian is channelling his anger/heeding Wolff’s advice and goes fastest.
Hamilton – six times a pole-sitter here, at the scene of his first GP win – goes second fastest.
Norris in the low 1:13s, Piastri just behind.
Everyone seeking to get those temperatures up. Weaving? If they were spotted driving like this when these roads are just streets and not a circuit, then the Mounties would not bother with a breathalyser.
Q2 is go.
Hamilton faces an investigation over his blocking of Gasly.
Q1 eliminations
And that is that for Q1, with Ocon, Albon, Alonso, Perez, Stroll and Bottas eliminated.
Alonso can only manage 18th, unable to repeat his advance to SQ2.
Antonelli in first and Russell in eighth among those to put their feet up.
Bearman’s car has lost something on the front left of the car. Will need a quick patch-up but he is safely into Q2, it appears.
But Gasly, who had been blocked by Hamilton on previous runs, dumps Ocon into 16th.
Bortoleto, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Stroll and Gasly in the drop zone.
Bearman on the radio: “Oh, a piece of my car has come off.”
Leclerc has a time now, up to ninth fastest, avoiding any late stress – assuming he has no more deletions.
The track is getting faster and faster. Lindblad now up to third, not somewhere he should be close to when all is said and done.
Isack Hadjar showing he’s a sound choice by Red Bull again, splitting the Mercedes.
Leclerc had a lock-up and went through a chicane.
And then Russell beats the Red Bull by a quarter, then Antonelli goes half a second faster still.
Verstappen, Norris, Piastri all go faster than the Mercedes pair.
Updated
Russell says the ride is a lot rougher than yesterday. Leclerc bottom after having his first time deleted.
Russell goes second briefly then Antonelli beats him by 0.015sec. Early days and only Q1.
Verstappen into the 1:14s, and so is Norris.
Piastri in the 1:15s. It’s 10C cooler than yesterday so it will be hard to get heat in the tyres, Brundle reminds us.
Updated
Unsafe release in the pitlane, a wonky wheel rim for Alonso.
Russell the first of the major players out, followed at a safe distance by Antonelli.
Q1 under way
Green light … and the lower field head out on to the track.
21C and cloudy in Quebec.
We are five minutes away from Q1.
Lewis Hamilton, despite tyre degradation contributing to his slip from fourth to sixth late in the sprint, seems to have been happy with his setup, so all the work at Ferrari is on Charles Leclerc’s car.
Ted Kravitz is in the pitlane, looking at what the teams are up to. Red Bull have caught his eye by looking to add downforce for the wet tomorrow; conceding they can’t compete in qualifying in the dry but there are advantages to be had playing a longer game.
Rival teams – not least McLaren, who had their only internecine strife last year between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – will be looking to capitalise. Ferrari, who are so fast off the grid, will be anxious at least to break into the second row for the main event, giving Lewis Hamilton and/or Charles Leclerc the chance to threaten the top two, even if they cannot get to the front row by right.
Wolff was pleased with Mercedes’ starts, Russell’s especially, and blamed the car not Antonelli for his being slightly slower. But still …
Back in the day, David James caught more crosses than any other Premier League goalkeeper – because more were fired in, as opposing teams knew that sooner or later he would drop one. One successful pair of starts does not stop a vulnerability being perceived.
It was a difficult incident to cover during the sprint because the TV director failed to show anything immediately and belatedly some unhelpful on-board footage, not screening the best views until after the race had finished. We all heard Antonelli’s complaints, though, which while he went too far did him a disservice.
To me the key points are that Russell could not simply disappear, and that the stewards did not get involved, as they could have done even though the pair are from the same team.
Wolff is chatting to Sky. He is “100% sure he will look like a fool at some points this year” after discussing the rules of engagement, or “racing intent” as they prefer to say.
If you were a multimillionaire team principal, what would you have said in the past couple of hours? The most important point, I guess, is that Wolff would have told Antonelli to focus on what is in front of him, ie qualifying. Mercedes will be after another front-row lockout now and anything else can wait.
What do you think? Let me know via philip.cornwall@theguardian.com
Welcome to qualifying, starting at 9pm BST/4pm EDT.
Has everyone got their breath back? Has everyone cooled down? The first sprint race in Montreal seems likely to feature in reviews of the season after George Russell and Kimi Antonelli almost came to grief and the latter reacted furiously, forcing Toto Wolff on to the team radio to tell the teenager to calm down. Three hours later, they will be back at it, albeit not wheel to wheel as the team send forth their drivers spaced out.
(For a moment I pondered the drug connations of “spaced out”, then let it go, then returned to the quotes, and there’s Antonelli saying Russell had been “very naughty”. God I hated the Shamen’s hymn to MDMA, Ebeneezer Goode, but that “naughty, naughty, very naughty” opening line has stuck around.)
Reuters reports that Russell said he needed to check the video but from what he felt at the time:
“From my side, I didn’t think I did anything wrong and it wasn’t investigated. I guess race directors and stewards thought the same.
“You never get overtaken around the outside of that corner,” he added, saying that Antonelli’s drive was risky. “Kudos to Kimi for giving it a go ... I respect that.
“You race each other hard, but fair, and from my side, there’s never ill intentions towards anything. But on the same note, I’m not just going to wave somebody by. And we’re both fighting for our championship.”
Of Antonelli, Reuters said:
He added the team would clarify the situation after reviewing the race. “The main thing for the team is that there was no contact, that we don’t crash into each other.”
We will see what Mercedes say later but you imagine there will be more internal discussions once everyone has packed up and left Quebec.
Giles Richards' sprint race report
Here’s Giles’s view on Russell and Antonelli:
They had the race in their hands after both made a good start from the front row and Russell closed out well despite pressure from Norris, but the debrief at Mercedes will likely still be a feisty affair.
Still, the win was the strong start to the weekend Russell was looking for. He won the opening race of the season in Australia and the first sprint of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix, but with Antonelli winning the past three races, the young Italian had taken a strong lead in the world championship. Russell needed to reassert himself and did so in the first real test.
Read his full report:
Right, time to wrap up now until qualifying. Here are the latest standings:
1 Kimi Antonelli (It) Mercedes 106pts
2 George Russell (GB) Mercedes 88
3 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 63
4 Lando Norris (GB) McLaren 58
5 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Ferrari 54
6 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 48
7 Max Verstappen (Neth) Red Bull 28
8 Oliver Bearman (GB) Haas 17
9 Pierre Gasly (Fr) Alpine 16
10 Liam Lawson (NZ) Racing Bulls 10
I’ll be back from 8.30pm BST/3.30pm EDT to see how the Mercedes pair battle each other when not wheel to wheel …
Wolff continues, asked about Norris taking P2 off Mercedes because of the fight: “You can see how quickly it goes. You create a gap with two cars, you start to fight a bit and you can lose a race … If it’s the grand prix, Norris may well win.” At bottom, he is glad this happened in a sprint, with fewer points at stake, and wants to use it to lay down some rules of engagement.
Updated
Wolff speaks. “It was great cinema. I really enjoyed these moments … we can say how will we handle these moments in future.”
Updated
It comes down to a split second and to whether Russell could have done anything differently. As Brundle says, he couldn’t just disappear.
What will Mercedes be saying behind closed doors? How will Antonelli react? He had calmed down by the presentation, but what will he take into qualifying and how will we react in the race tomorrow?
Brundle says that had it been two teams then there would have been protests, but points out that Russell bounced on the kerb – how could he give more space to give the car’s width.
Bernie Collins asking why the race director did not look at Antonelli-Russell. It was a close call. The question is whether Antonelli was under control sufficiently to take the next corner within track limits.
Interesting to hear Russell push back at the notion that he really needed that. “I was never really concerned, to be honest. It’s just I know Miami is a bit of a bogey track for me and of course there’s been this huge break in the calendar, so lots of people with a lot of things to say. But ultimately I just wanted to get back racing and it feels like the season is going to restart now with, I think, six races in eight weeks.” Will he still feel so happy after qualifying? And what will he make of Radio Antonelli?
Jean Alesi, the 1997 winner here, does the presentations.
Updated
Norris says “It was good to watch them go at it for a while” of the Mercedes pair. “Today was a good result for us.”
Updated
Russell speaks. “It was a cool race, I was just talking to Lando, it was very difficult to get a gap around here. It felt quite easy to follow, the slipstream was quite powerful with the overtake mode.”
Updated
Antonelli says he got pushed off, but concedes he made a mistake after that. “I was quite well alongside, I got pushed off.”
Updated
That was a hell of a race, even if we never saw the lead truly change, whatever Antonelli may think. Russell had to grind that out. It was a good performance by Norris, too, though he got lucky that when he locked up Antonelli went straight on and had to give the place back.
Russell started on pole and stayed there but it was far from a stroll. Antonelli put him under pressure but lost his head and a place – and he is still sounding off. “We talk about this internally and not on the radio,” says Wolff.
Updated
Russell wins the sprint!
Here comes Russell! Ahead of Norris, Antonelli, Piastri, Leclerc, Hamilton.
Updated
Piastri takes Hamilton! Leclerc does too.
Antonelli passes! But off the track and has to give it back.
Lap 22. Russell hanging in there despite graining problems but Norris locked up.
The big overtake chance is Piastri on Hamilton. 0.2 between them.
Lap 21: Hamilton has touched a wall under pressure from Piastri.
10sec time penalty for Hülkenberg for gaining an advantage by leaving the track.
Russell seems to have pulled out a little. Up to 1sec. Perhaps we will be robbed of a grandstand finish.
Martin Brundle was arguing earlier that you might want to be second going into the final lap, the theory being that you can overtake and not be got back at. But what if there are three cars rather than two in the argument?
Hamilton-Piastri-Leclerc is as tight as Russell-Norris-Antonelli. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, started seventh, has stayed seventh, and is no threat and under no threat.
Sector times are such an oddity now: with variations in the use of the hybrid power across different parts of the circuit, it is very hard to make comparisons.
Russell struggling. Tyres not hot enough and some graining on his mediums. Antonelli putting in fastest laps in third, Norris doing well too. It is now really tight between the top three.
We’re approaching halfway of the 23-lap sprint. 1. Russell, 2. Norris, 3. Antonelli, 4. Hamilton, 5. Piastri, 6. Leclerc, 7. Verstappen, 8. Lindblad, 9. Colapinto, 10. Sainz
Norris less than a second behind Russell. The Antonelli on-board video suggests Russell was not at fault.
Correction! Hadjar back out. It will be valuable to pick up tips for tomorrow.
Hadjar is out, engine problems for the second Red Bull. A big shame for the first driver in a while to show he can at least use the Verstappen-focused Red Bull decently.
The teenager at risk of being sent to his room.
“If you drive angry, you are more likely to go sideways or backwards,” says Brundle. Antonelli has lost it so badly that Toto Wolff gets on the radio.
Antonelli being told to calm down and he is having none of it.
It all started with a mistake from Russell that allowed Antonelli to close right up. From then, it was tight. Antonelli says Russell should face a penalty.
Antonelli messes it up! Another move fails and he is off the track, allowing Norris through.
Updated
Antonelli and Russell right on each other, just avoided a clash.
Updated
The leading pair are pulling further clear. The Mercedes upgrades are stunning in their effect.
The Mercedes have 0.7/0.8 between them but Norris is 3sec back. “Miles quicker than the rest of the pack,” says Martin Brundle, but you didn’t need to be a former driver to spot that.
Hülkenberg the big loser so far, down four places.
Antonelli right on Russell’s shoulder. Stroll, meanwhile, did manage to start. Aston Martin need all the on-track experience they can get.
Best Mercedes start of the year but Hamilton will also be happy.
Russell away, Antonelli too. Hamilton ahead of Piastri.
Lights out!
Lance Stroll from the pitlane, if he is to start at all.
That is a brilliant stat: for all their domination, the Mercedes have not led at the end of a single first lap.
Here we go on the formation lap. Will the Ferraris get another fast start? Or will the bank of McLarens stop Hamilton and Leclerc from getting at the Mercedes?
Excellent recycling news from David Croft: the Île Notre Dame was built in the St Lawrence seaway using the soil excavated to build Montreal’s metro system.
The driver countdown is on. We are almost go (unless, perhaps, our name is Lance Stroll).
George Russell asked about the start, which has been Mercedes’s only problem area. “We control what we can control,” he says.
An army of mechanics are working on the Aston Martin, against the clock.
Ouch. Lance Stroll’s car is in pieces. Suspension problem, Collins diagnoses.
Lewis Hamilton zooms by on a scooter, setting a good example to any watching kids by wearing a helmet.
Wildlife watch: in case you were in doubt, all groundhogs are marmots, but not all marmots are groundhogs.
“I’ve set a lot of land speed records and I have the speeding tickets to prove it,” jokes Donovan Bailey, the 1996 100m Olympic champion. Not sure his insights on breathing in sprinting vs racing starts are that significant but more valuable is his reflection on just how busy the grid is, versus the peace and isolation of the start line in athletics.
Kravitz is looking at the new Mercedes diffuser – and Collins notes that Red Bull are having a peek, too.
The cars are on the grid, Ted Kravitz and Bernie Collins are walking.
Will the rain tomorrow be biblical? Today, the animals go out two by two from places five to eight: a pair of prancing horses on row three and a pair of red bulls on row four. And of course two papayas on row two, and two silver arrows at the front. Last time out in Miami, the top four places in main qualifying were shared by four teams, while in the sprint qualifying there were four teams across the top five places. Does yesterday’s result suggest a degree of stratification?
Half an hour to go to lights out for the sprints race. Don’t forget to email me at philip.cornwall@theguardian.com
A reminder of what is at stake in the sprint race. The winner gets 8pts, second gets 7pts, and so on down to eighth getting 1pt.
Here are the leading drivers’ standings:
1 Kimi Antonelli (It) Mercedes 100pts
2 George Russell (GB) Mercedes 80
3 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 59
4 Lando Norris (GB) McLaren 51
5 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Ferrari 51
6 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 43
7 Max Verstappen (Neth) Red Bull 26
8 Oliver Bearman (GB) Haas 17
9 Pierre Gasly (Fr) Alpine 16
10 Liam Lawson (NZ) Racing Bulls 10
Before we get going properly, here are the full qualifying times:
1 George Russell (GB) Mercedes 1min 12.965sec
2 Kimi Antonelli (It) Mercedes 1:13.033
3 Lando Norris (GB) McLaren 1:13.280
4 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:13.299
5 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Ferrari 1:13.326
6 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:13.410
7 Max Verstappen (Neth) Red Bull 1:13.504
8 Isack Hadjar (Fr) Red Bull 1:13.605
9 Arvid Lindblad (GB) Racing Bulls 1:13.737
10 Carlos Sainz Jr (Sp) Williams 1:14.536
11 Nico Hülkenberg (Ger) Audi 1:14.595
12 Gabriel Bortoleto (Br) Audi 1:14.627
13 Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine 1:14.702
14 Esteban Ocon (Fr) Haas 1:14.928
15 Oliver Bearman (GB) Haas 1:15.305
16 Fernando Alonso (Sp) Aston Martin 1:15.760
17 Sergio Pérez (Mex) Cadillac 1:16.002
18 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:16.354
19 Pierre Gasly (Fr) Alpine 1:16.642
20 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Cadillac 1:16.866
21 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams
22 Liam Lawson (NZ) Racing B
Bearman, Gasly, Bottas and Albon will start from the pitlane. Bearman had modifications outside parc fermé; Gasly had suspension work done; Bottas had setup and suspension changes; and Albon had setup changes – unsurprising after his collision with the marmot.
Updated
Preamble
It is safe to say the Canadian Grand Prix weekend is not working out the way it was supposed to for plenty of the participants – as Robbie Burns almost wrote, the best-laid plans of marmots and men in Montreal often go awry.
First, there have been more red flags than on Hannibal Lecter’s dating profile. In free practice, Liam Lawson lost power steering and parked up by a chicane – picking up a €30,000 part-suspended fine for Racing Bulls as the FIA ruled they had failed to ensure his clutch disengagement system button was working. Then it was Alex Albon, whose Williams was involved in a collision with one of the aforementioned marmots, following in the messy tyre tracks of Lewis Hamilton last year. Finally, Esteban Ocon spun his Haas into a wall and needed a new nose. Neither Lawson nor Albon made it to the start line for sprint qualifying.
Once actual competitive driving got going, it was Fernando Alonso’s turn to crash out. The Spaniard was pushing the Aston Martin hard to try to make Q2 and indeed just made it in theory, but in practice struck a wall after setting his time, ending his participation and making it a messy thé-time on the Île Notre Dame, with a long delay.
While Racing Bulls, Williams and Aston Martin struggle to get ready for the sprint race, for the organisers, the bigger clouds are, er, big clouds: while all is set fair for today, it will be absolutely tipping it down all tomorrow. The odds on there being more red flags are surely short.
One thing you can all but rely on in 2026: Mercedes will be at the front. And one man for whom Canada is going to plan so far is George Russell. The Briton, stung by his teammate Kimi Antonelli’s run of wins and now 20 points behind in the standings, just edged out the Italian to take sprint pole. Remember, while other teams brought their first major upgrades to Miami, this is our first sight of Mercedes’s development. As Giles Richards, our F1 correspondent, wrote:
Certainly, should Mercedes have made the same advances that their rivals did in Miami, they will retain the whip hand – and with it the intensity of the title fight between their drivers, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, will surely ratchet up.
While Mercedes locked out row one, McLaren did the same to row two (Norris then Piastri), Ferrari are on row three (Hamilton then Leclerc), Red Bull are on row four (Verstappen and Hadjar), followed by the sole Racing Bull and Williams to take part in SQ on row five (Lindblad then Sainz).
Russell definitely needed his 0.068 advantage over his teammate. As Giles wrote:
The 19-year-old Antonelli, in only his second season in F1, has been enormously impressive, having won the last three races in a row to lead the world championship by 20 points from his far more experienced teammate. Russell, the pre‑season favourite, who could manage only fourth in Miami, unsurprisingly had to bat away inquiries in Canada as to whether he was starting to feel the pressure.
“It’s been a turbulent start but the truth is Miami felt like the first tough race of the season,” he said. “It’s still so early days and I know how to deal with it. It’s not the first time in my career that I’ve had a bad race or two but in this sport it does change so quickly: one week you have a tough race and the next week you come back and everything goes back to normal.”
I’ll be back from 4.30pm BST/11.30am EDT to see how it all unfolds. In the meantime, read the rest of Giles’s preview of the weekend:
