GEORGE AND MAX WITH IDENTICAL TIME, MERCEDES AMG TAKES THE POLE

George Russell took pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix, taking the second top spot of his career, ahead of Max Verstappen who set an identical lap time at the end of a tight session at Circuit Gilles Villenueve. Lando Norris took third for McLaren, just 0.021s off pole.

At the start of the qualfying, with rain expected, a queue of cars formed at the end of the pit lane with drivers eager to post a banker lap.

It was Norris who set the early pace as he dipped into the 1m14s bracket. Verstappen then posted a lap of 1:13.368 to sit a little under two tenths clear of the McLaren driver, but Russell then jumped to the top of the order, 0.126s ahead of the Dutchman, with Lewis Hamilton in P3 in the second Mercedes AMG.

Norris wasn’t done, however, and he returned to top spot on 1:12.959 ahead of Russell, before Hamilton took P1 a tenth ahead of the McLaren driver. Verstappen was back on track, though, and despite complaining about poor downshifts, his final flyer of 1:12.360 took him back to the top of the timesheet, almost four tenths of a second ahead of Yuki Tsunoda who took an impressive P2 ahead of Hamilton.

The big shock of Q1 was the exit of Sergio Pérez. Ahead of the final runs, the Mexican found himself rooted to the bottom of the order but when he crossed the line at the end of his final run it was only good enough for P12 and he soon slid back to the edge of the danger zone.

And when Alex Albon put in good final lap to jump out of the drop zone, Pérez was edged out of the session in P16 ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hülkenberg and the second Sauber of Zhou Guanyu.

Russell again set the pace early in Q2 as he took P1 with a lap that put him 0.139 ahead of Oscar Piastri. Verstappen’s first run, on used tyres was only good for the lower part of the top 10 and as the session unfolded dropped to tenth place.

In the final runs, Norris jumped to P1, ahead of Tsunoda, who was a tenth further back. Verstappen, though, was falling further back and with a minute remaining he was in 14th place.

However, with new Softs on board he crossed the line and moved to a solid P6, which became P7 when Albon’s final flyer pushed him ahead of the Dutchman.

At the top of the timesheet, Russell took P1, ahead of Hamilton and Norris, with Tsunoda in fourth ahead of Piastri. Albon’s late rise up the order also meant that Charles Leclerc was dumped out of qualifying in 11th place, one ahead of Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr..

Also ruled out at the end of Q2 were Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly.

In the first runs of Q3, with all 10 drivers on used Soft tyres, it was Russell who again the early pace. Hamilton took second 0.280 behind his team-mate, Verstappen slotted into third place.

In the final runs, the McLarens were first on track and they split the Mercedes AMG, with Norris in P2 just 0.021 behind Russell who held on to provisional pole, as Piastri took third.

Verstappen posted an identical time to Russell but even though the Mercedes AMG driver failed to lower the benchmark any further, he sealed pole by virtue of having set the time first.

Behind the top two, Norris took third ahead of team-mate Piastri, while Daniel Ricciardo took an excellent fifth place for RB ahead of Alonso and Hamilton. Tsunoda was eighth in the second RB ahead of Lance Stroll and the final top 10 spot went to Albon.