George Russell secured pole position for the Formula 1 sprint in Canada and thus celebrated another success against Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes duel. In qualifying for the short race at the Grand Prix in Montreal, the Englishman came out on top just ahead of the World Championship leader – the competition had come to Canada with new hope, but had to admit defeat on Friday.
World champion Lando Norris in the McLaren took third place on the grid for the sprint, in which points are at stake on Saturday (6 p.m. CEST). The main race follows on Sunday (10 p.m. CEST/Sky). Oscar Piastri came fourth in the second McLaren, just ahead of the Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Max Verstappen in the Red Bull came seventh. Nico Hülkenberg in the Audi ended up – as so often this season – in eleventh place and narrowly missed the final section of qualifying. On Saturday he has another chance to score his first points of the season.
The competition had recently shown improving form; thanks to successful updates, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull were significantly closer to Mercedes at the last race in Miami and were even superior in phases of the weekend. In Canada, Mercedes now has its first major innovations of the year on the car, which worked excellently from the first training session.
All of the four Grand Prix so far this season have gone to Mercedes, Antonelli recently won three times in a row. In the World Cup he has 100 points and is 20 points ahead of Russell, Leclerc (59), Norris and Hamilton (51 each) are further behind.