Britain’s George Russell powered to pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli following an incident between the duo during the sprint race.
In a thrilling finish to qualifying, Russell snatched pole position from his younger teammate following a last-gasp effort, trumping the Italian by 0.068 seconds.
Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.
“That last lap came from nowhere,” Russell said.
“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.”
Antonelli added: “I am pretty happy. There was still a little bit left on the table but George did a great lap and all eyes on to tomorrow.”
The two McLaren drivers, British reigning world champion Lando Norris and Australian Oscar Piastri, will start from the second row for Sunday’s race having placed third and fourth respectively.
“I feel like we did a good job. It’s a difficult track to put everything together perfectly, but we did another good job,” Norris said.
“It’s clear these guys (Mercedes) are a little bit quicker. It’s nice to be closer than we were yesterday.
“The weather will be different tomorrow. We are in a good place and the place we need to be.”
TALKING POINTS: Inside Merc drivers’ simmering rivalry; signs of life for McLaren as raceday ‘chaos’ looms
Pole position qualifier George Russell of Great Britain.Source: AFP
Earlier on Saturday, pre-season title favourite Russell delivered a consummate lights-to-flag drive to win the sprint race and trim Antonelli’s championship lead.
The 28-year-old came home 1.272 seconds clear of Norris after resisting a spirited attack by the teenage Italian, who finished third, in the early part of the 23-lap race.
Piastri came home fourth ahead of both Ferraris with Charles Leclerc finishing fifth ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.
Four-time champion Max Verstappen finished seventh for Red Bull ahead of Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad.
It was the first sprint race held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and was a memorable one, with the scrap between Russell and Antonelli requiring an intervention from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, telling the precocious Italian to cool off and stop talking on the team radio.
The incident came on lap six when Antonelli, 19, tried a move around the outside of Turn One, but Russell defended stoutly forcing the Italian to run off with a muscular defence of his leading position.
“That was very naughty,” said Antonelli, who accused Russell of pushing him off.
“That should be a penalty. I was alongside the mirror.”
His experienced race engineer Peter Bonnington told him to calm down and concentrate, but Antonelli was still fuming after the race.
“If we race like that, it is good to know,” said the teenager before Wolff told him: “Kimi, we don’t talk about this on the radio — we do it internally.
“Concentrate on the driving, please, not on the radio moaning.”
Antonelli continued: “I need to review on that because I was quite well alongside him at turn one.
“But it was a good battle.”
Russell later revealed that he had a “good chat” with Antonelli about the incident.
“We are both racing drivers. We both know what to do, we both respect one another,” he said.
“We will go racing and hope it’s just a battle between the two of us but we saw how competitive everyone was today.
“And tomorrow looks to be wet which will be a whole new challenge, so it’s not what we are thinking about. We just want to ensure we are on the top step.”
Antonelli’s aggression and mishap gave Norris his opportunity, having had a perfect view of the battle ahead of him.
“It was good to watch them go at it for a little while,” Norris said.
“But we were there to pick up the pieces when it happened.”
In a frantic race, Norris showed he had the speed and resolve to resist the clamour around Antonelli’s spectacular run of successes after three consecutive wins had lifted him 20 points clear in the title race after Miami.
The field was tightly packed with several close scraps, including the late moves that saw Piastri fight his way past Hamilton, who smacked the ‘wall of champions’ and slipped from fourth to sixth.
Antonelli also made a late bid to steal back into second place with another attempt to pass Norris on the outside of Turn One, but went off and had to give the place back after running through a run-off area.