George Russell took Mercedes’ first pole position of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Both drivers set identical lap times of one minute, 12 seconds dead, but Russell will start the race in first place. Lewis Hamilton managed only seventh in the second Mercedes, while Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the second row for McLaren. Ferrari failed to get either car into the top 10, with Charles Leclerc 11th after winning last time out in Monaco and teammate Carlos Sainz 12th.
The pole seemed to come out of the blue after a difficult start to the 2024 season, but it was the culmination of a series of upgrades that have been put on the car over the past four races. The new front wing introduced in Monaco was the cream on the top, where only Russell had it before both cars used it in Montreal.
Verstappen said that Q3 was the worst session for Mercedes, but he is happy with second place. Norris was just 0.021 seconds off pole himself in a tightly packed session, and Piastri was just 0.082 seconds behind him.
At RB, Daniel Ricciardo out-qualified Yuki Tsunoda for the second time this season at a grand prix. Fernando Alonso was sixth for Aston Martin, ending a difficult run of qualifying sessions at the previous three races by being 0.473 seconds quicker than teammate Lance Stroll in eighth. The Aston Martins sandwiched Hamilton, who was second fastest behind Russell after the first runs in the top-10 shootout.
Neither Mercedes driver improved on their second lap, but the 0.28-second gap between the pair allowed six drivers to slot in between them by the end of the session.
(BBC)
