George Russell capped a charged Saturday in Montreal by seizing pole for the Canadian Grand Prix, hours after winning the first sprint race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and amid rising tension with Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli. The Briton’s late flyer clinched top spot as the 2026 title fight tightened and the intra-team rivalry sharpened.
In a thrilling end to qualifying, Russell edged Antonelli by 0.068 seconds with a last-gasp lap. “That last lap came from nowhere,” Russell said. “It was such a great feeling when it was such a challenging session and you pull it altogether on that last lap to throw yourselves up the leaderboard is epic.”
Antonelli, who will line up alongside Russell on the front row, accepted he had left some time on the table. “I am pretty happy. There was still a little bit left on the table but George did a great lap and all eyes on to tomorrow.”
McLaren locked out the second row, with reigning champion Lando Norris third and Oscar Piastri fourth. “I feel like we did a good job. It’s a difficult track to put everything together perfectly, but we did another good job,” Norris said. “It’s clear these guys (Mercedes) are a little bit quicker. It’s nice to be closer than we were yesterday. “The weather will be different tomorrow. We are in a good place and the place we need to be.”
Earlier, pre-season title favourite Russell executed a lights-to-flag sprint victory to trim Antonelli’s championship lead. The 28-year-old finished 1.272 seconds clear of Norris after fending off an early attack from the 19-year-old Italian, with Antonelli third and Piastri fourth. Charles Leclerc was fifth, Lewis Hamilton sixth, four-time champion Max Verstappen seventh for Red Bull and Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad eighth.
The sprint was punctuated by a fierce lap-six exchange between the Mercedes pair. Antonelli attempted a pass around the outside of Turn 1, only for Russell to defend robustly and force him off track. “That was very naughty,” Antonelli said over team radio. “That should be a penalty. I was alongside the mirror.” He was told to calm down and concentrate by his race engineer Peter Bonnington, and after the flag the debate continued.
“If we race like that, it is good to know,” Antonelli said, before he was cut in by the team boss. “Kimi, we don’t talk about this on the radio -- we do it internally. “Concentrate on the driving, please, not on the radio moaning,” Toto Wolff told him. Antonelli added: “I need to review on that because I was quite well alongside him at turn one. “But it was a good battle.”
Russell said he and Antonelli had a good conversation after the sprint. “We are both racing drivers. We both know what to do, we both respect one another,” he said. “We will go racing and hope it’s just a battle between the two of us but we saw how competitive everyone was today. “And tomorrow looks to be wet which will be a whole new challenge, so it’s not what we are thinking about. We just want to ensure we are on the top step.”
Norris, who benefited when the fight ahead opened the door, said he was ready to pounce again. “It was good to watch them go at it for a little while,” Norris said. “But we were there to pick up the pieces when it happened.” Piastri also made late gains, passing Hamilton after the seven-time champion clipped the Wall of Champions and slipped from fourth to sixth. Antonelli later tried another outside move on Norris at Turn 1 but ran wide through the escape road and handed the place back.
Antonelli had arrived in Canada on a surge, with three straight wins lifting him 20 points clear after Miami. With rain forecast and Mercedes’ internal battle intensifying, Sunday’s grand prix promises another stern test for the frontrunners — and a chance for McLaren to keep the pressure on.
Source: foxsports.com.au