Russell storms to pole position ahead of Mercedes teammate Antonelli at Canadian GP

Mercedes driver George Russell, of the United Kingdom, waves as he takes pole following qualifying at the Formula One auto racing Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Saturday, May 23, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

MONTREAL — George Russell’s perfect weekend continued Saturday at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Hours after winning the sprint race, Russell charged to the pole position for the third consecutive year as Mercedes locked out the front row for Sunday’s main event.

The 28-year-old Brit appeared off the pace after making a pit stop in the final qualifying segment, then he surged to the top of the leaderboard with a thrilling last-gasp lap around Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“It is the most exhilarating feeling in the world when it comes last minute, out of nowhere,” he screamed over the team radio.

“There are times when you expect to be on pole, and every lap you do is the quickest. But the times when you are fighting for it and you’re never up there, and then it comes together on that final lap to be the one, it’s the best feeling in the world,” he later added. “That rush of adrenalin within the space of 10 seconds is what we live for.”

Russell clocked a time of one minute 12.578s seconds, edging teammate and Formula One points leader Kimi Antonelli by 0.068 — the exact same gap between the two drivers in sprint qualifying.

“I’m going to remember that number for a very long time,” Antonelli said.

The Mercedes drivers will line up side by side after clashing in a fiery sprint race earlier Saturday, when Russell and Antonelli made contact but avoided a crash.

Russell fended off a pair of attacks from Antonelli on the sixth of 23 laps as the drivers went wheel-to-wheel into Turn 1, sending the 19-year-old Italian into the grass.

“That was very naughty,” a furious Antonelli said in one of several complaints as emotions boiled over on the team radio.

Antonelli explained after qualifying that “it’s all good now” after reviewing the situation with team principal Toto Wolff.

“I probably would have reacted the same,” Russell added. “Because if something doesn’t pay off in the moment and you feel like you’ve been hard done by, you think the other guy’s in the wrong and that’s just natural. We’re racers, we’re fighters and we wear a heart on our sleeve.

“You put a microphone on the 22 footballers on the field and they get a bad tackle or whatever, they’re not going to say ‘thank you very much.’ We’re just in this tough position that everything we think and we feel is broadcast to the world.”

Reigning F1 champion Lando Norris of McLaren (1:13.503) rounded out the top three on an overcast, 22 C day as Mercedes continued its dominant form this season.

“To be as close as we were to Mercedes is a good thing. To be ahead I think would be an amazing surprise and (we) would be over the moon,” Norris said. “To beat the Mercedes around here, considering how strong they’ve been so far this season, I think is probably a little bit optimistic.”

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri will start Sunday’s race in fourth, followed by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in fifth and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in sixth. Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto rounded out the top 10.

Montreal’s Lance Stroll, the lone Canadian on the 22-driver grid, will start in 21st. The 27-year-old Stroll is still seeking his first points amid a dismal season for Aston Martin.

Antonelli leads second-place Russell by 18 points after winning the past three Grands Prix, putting pressure on his more experienced teammate to swing the momentum in his favour this weekend.

So far, Russell has answered on a track where he has thrived.

Russell won the Canadian Grand Prix from pole last year after dropping from first to third in 2024.

Now the question is whether he can do it in the rain, with forecasts suggesting drivers could face wet conditions for the first time this season on Sunday.

“It is going to be risky, it will be challenging, probably isn’t going to very pleasant, but it’s part of the game,” Russell said, noting that this season’s tires are not expected to respond well to the rain. “It’s not going to be easy. Wet races at the best of times aren’t easy, but the two of us are in the best place to start it.”

The Canadian Grand Prix is the fifth of 22 stops on the F1 calendar after the Iran war forced cancellations in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2026.

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press