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<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s definitely feeling great,\u201d Russell said. \u201cWe obviously saw in Miami, McLaren were really close and Ferrari not too far behind.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cPleased to have it on the car, pleased to be back in P1, it\u2019s been a little while. But yeah, obviously still big focus for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reigning F1 champion Lando Norris will line up third alongside McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in the second row.<\/p>\n
Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc sat fifth and sixth, followed by Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar in seventh and eighth.<\/p>\n
F1 introduced sprints in 2021. The shortened races cover roughly 100 kilometres, about one-third the distance of a grand prix, for a maximum of eight points. For reference, a grand prix victory is worth 25.<\/p>\n
Antonelli, a 19-year-old Italian, has won three straight grand prix races to top the drivers\u2019 championship with 100 points, 20 more than second-place Russell.<\/p>\n
The day started with a disrupted practice session as Williams\u2019 Alex Albon crashed into a groundhog on the exit of Turn 7, causing significant damage to his car and forcing him out of sprint qualifying.<\/p>\n
Located on \u00cele Notre-Dame in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is well known for featuring wildlife, especially groundhogs.<\/p>\n
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton also hit one last year during the Grand Prix, calling it \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canadian GP is just the fifth of 22 stops this season after F1 cancelled April races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia because of the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
The race is happening a few weeks earlier than its traditional mid-June slot as part of a revamped schedule to reduce travel, and overlapping with a Montreal Canadiens playoff run for the first time.<\/p>\n
The event continues Saturday with the sprint race, followed by qualifying to determine the starting order for Sunday\u2019s grand prix.<\/p>\n
HABS IN FOUR<\/p>\n
Montreal\u2019s Lance Stroll, the lone Canadian on the 22-driver grid, predicted Thursday the Canadiens would sweep their Eastern Conference final series against the Carolina Hurricanes. Montreal then proved him right for now, stunning Carolina 6-2 in Game 1 later that evening.<\/p>\n
While Stroll\u2019s favourite hockey club is surging, things haven\u2019t gone so well for his racing team. With zero points this season, Aston Martin sits tied for last with first-year team Cadillac in the constructors\u2019 standings.<\/p>\n
Stroll\u2019s struggles continued Friday in sprint qualifying as he finished 18th and teammate Fernando Alonso placed 16th. The 27-year-old Stroll has reached the podium just three times across 10 years in F1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have liked to have more opportunities to be at the front of the grid,\u201d he told a group of Canadian reporters in French on Thursday. \u201cI haven\u2019t had a lot of races where I had the opportunity to be in the top five, top six. Probably 10 to 15 per cent of my career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other 80 per cent, I did not have the opportunity to be in a competitive car, but that\u2019s why I continue to come here. I have a lot of belief in this project.\u201d<\/p>\n
SILLY SEASON<\/p>\n
Piastri responded to rumours Thursday that he would be Red Bull\u2019s main target should Verstappen choose to leave F1, something he has teased amid controversial new regulations this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is news to me, yes,\u201d Piastri said. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously not been any discussions or anything, but it\u2019s flattering, yes, and there\u2019s not really much more than that, really. Hopefully it proves my stock as a driver, which is a nice thing, but I\u2019m very happy with where I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella also weighed in during a press conference Friday, dismissing the gossip.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mentioned the silly season, and I think we are already fully in this silly season,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we think about Oscar, we couldn\u2019t be happier.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2026.<\/p>\n
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s definitely feeling great,\u201d Russell said. \u201cWe obviously saw in Miami, McLaren were really close and Ferrari not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,578,576,577,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-687853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}