George Russell claimed his second career pole position at the Canadian Grand Prix, pipping Max Verstappen to the top spot despite the two drivers setting the exact same time. The Mercedes star set his lap time first, giving him the upper hand.
Mercedes and Aston Martin picked up where they left off at the end of FP3 when the green light went on in qualifying. Both teams demonstrated plenty of pace, while Ferrari struggled to get their tyres into the right temperature window.
However, the major scalp in Q1 came at Red Bull as Sergio Perez was dumped out in Q1 for the second race weekend in succession. The Mexican was joined by Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg and Zhou Guanyu in the bottom five, just days after his two-year contract extension was announced.
After two runs in Q2, Verstappen was in danger of dropping out of qualifying, sitting on the cut-off line ahead of Yuki Tsunoda. Thankfully for the reigning champion, he was able to squeeze through with a fresh set of tyres strapped onto his RB20.
Ferrari were not so lucky. Both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz failed to make it out of the second part of qualifying with the former absolutely seething after climbing out of the cockpit. Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly were the other drivers eliminated in Q2.
Heading into Q3, the fight for pole position looked to be between the Mercedes and McLaren drivers, but after the first runs, it was clear that the Silver Arrows were the ones to beat. Russell delivered on that promise, finishing with the exact same time as Verstappen but claiming the pole.
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