George Russell barely beat Max Verstappen in a historically close qualifying session.
Patrick Iversen and Alex Davies
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George Russell takes pole position in Montreal
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The Mercedes driver will start in front in tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix. It's his second career pole, clinched by virtue of setting his 1:12.000 lap before Max Verstappen notched exactly the same time.
"Good boy George," Toto Wolff says.
"Amazing, amazing, amazing," Russell says.
Russell ecstatic with pole: "I feel so good"
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"I feel so good. So good. So much hard work back at the factory's gone into this," Russell said after he clinched pole position on Saturday. "We said it in Monaco, we hope this is the start of something for our season. And I think it is. It's a good feeling."
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Identical lap times for Verstappen and Russell
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1:12.000 for each driver! But Russell gets the edge, as he set his time first.
Final laps coming
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Everybody's out of the pits now, with just a minute left.
Here we go!
McLaren going out of sequence here
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Piastri and Norris are pushing quite early at the end of Q3. Might be they think the track improvement will continue that they can get two flying lap attempts out of this set of tires.
It's put Piastri P2 for now.
Here comes Mercedes
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George Russell P1, Lewis Hamilon P2. Mercedes is well and truly in the fight right now.
B teams represent
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One result of both Ferraris and Sergio Pérez failing to reach Q3 is that this final round is chockfull of drivers from the teams in the sport's bottom five. RB's Tsunoda and Ricciardo and Williams' Alex Albon are here, and looking to position themselves for strong points finishes tomorrow.
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A riveting Q3 is on the cards here
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This could be a mega end to qualifying. Tight margins at the front, Mercedes with the momentum after a 1-2 in Q2, Verstappen seemingly out of shape, McLaren in the mix as well... I'm really excited for this session. So many unknowns!
Out in Q2
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Along with the two Ferraris, Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly are out.
At the top of the sheet are George Russell and Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes having a lovely weekend — followed by Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Oscar Piastri and Alex Albon.
Both Ferraris are out!
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Wow, that is a huge shock. Two weeks on from victory in Monaco, Ferrari has a double Q2 elimination: Charles Leclerc 11th, and Carlos Sainz 12th. Leclerc is very quick to get out of his car. "I won't comment here," he says on the radio. Understandably not happy.
Final runs coming now
Just a minute left.
Another George Russell-ism for the collection
I do love to hear the weird turns of phrase that George Russell comes out with. "Holy moly" is definitely a new one.
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Eye of the hurricane
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We're in that calm period between the opening runs and those that will come in the session's closing minutes. Tsunoda, Stroll, Sargeant, Gasly and Albon currently at risk.
Verstappen only ninth with his latest run
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Welp, it's not going perfectly for Max Verstappen right now. P9 with his latest lap after only just moving up from the drop zone. And he's already back to 10th as I write this. He'll need a big final lap to be sure of his advancement to Q3. Doesn't seem like everything is at ease for the reigning world champion.
A real marker lap from Piastri there
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That's some serious pace we've seen from Oscar Piastri early in the session. Six-tenths clear of Verstappen and Hamilton at the top, and the first spots of rain are starting to appear on the cameras. Again, only light, and not expected to last long, but it could shake things up.
Here comes the rain
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Lando Norris is told on the radio the first spots of rain have hit the track at Turns 7 and 8. The shower is expected to last 2-3 minutes, according to his engineer. The radars are showing more rain coming in about 20 minutes.
Long queue at the end of the pit lane
Fearing rain, a lot of cars are already queuing up at pit exit with 90 seconds to go until Q2 goes green. The wind has definitely been picking up out there.
Rain expected in under 20 minutes!
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Verstappen leads a mixed up order
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The reigning world champion topped Q1, but the order behind him wasn't one we'd have predicted: He was followed by Yuki Tsunoda, Lewis Hamilton, and Alex Albon. And look at Logan Sargeant, who sits P9 after a strong lap in the session's final moments.
Pérez knocked out in Q1 again
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Oops, that's not good. Sergio Pérez, for the second race in a row, is eliminated in Q1. He curses on the radio, to which race engineer Hugh Bird simply replies: "Yep."
Pérez is out along with Bottas, Ocon, Hülkenberg and Zhou.
No further investigation on Piastri impeding
Stewards won't take any more action on that incident.
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