Canadian GP qualifying result: Kimi Antonelli denied pole | F1 | Sport

George Russell let out a loud scream of equal parts delight and relief as he produced a stunning final lap to deny his team-mate Kimi Antonelli pole position at the Canadian Grand Prix. “It’s the most exhilarating feeling in the world when it comes at the last minute,” he said over the radio after knocking the other Mercedes car off top spot with his final lap.

Antonelli produced an excellent lap with his final run which no-one could match, until Russell came along and secured his third consecutive pole position in Montreal by just 0.068 of a second. But there was misery for Max Verstappen who declared the conditions “impossible” as he struggled to find any grip at all in his Red Bull.

Nobody would have been surprised to see the two Aston Martin and Cadillac cars occupy the bottom four positions by the end of Q1. Alex Albon also found himself in the bottom six for the third time this year in Grand Prix qualifying, while Esteban Ocon was the suprise name to suffer an early exit given Haas have brought their big upgrade to this race, but it doesn’t seem to be having the desired effect up to now.

In Q2 it looked like there would be an even bigger casualty with Charles Leclerc struggling throughout, possibly with damage on his Ferrari. He scraped through, eighth fastest in Q2, but was clearly unhappy with his pace and demanded the team put him out in clean air for the final part of the session.

Pierre Gasly was out in Q2, though, having picked up damage on his Alpine after striking a groundhog – the second such incident of the weekend after Alex Albon hit and killed one on Friday. After a strong performance in the Sprint race a few hours earlier, Franco Colapinto continued his impressive Saturday performance by booking his place in the top 10.

Verstappen did the same but he had been complaining about a lack of grip throughout qualifying and things got no better as he limped to sixth place in a Red Bull that looked to be set up for potentially wet conditions that are forecast for Sunday’s race. He at least got the better of Leclerc who was marooned down in eighth place when the chequered flag flew.