Last year’s Canadian Grand Prix polesitter George Russell was unbothered after a 2-week break in the Formula 1 schedule and was flying through Montreal, setting an incredible lap time of 1 minute and 10.899 seconds during Saturday’s (June 14) qualifying. In the last minute, Russell’s Silver Arrow settled the fight for pole while the reigning champion Max Verstappen snatched second place from Oscar Piastri, who had to settle for third position.
Q3
The pole position was closely fought for as all drivers nailed their flying laps around Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
By the end, Verstappen and Piastri were beating each other’s time as the clock was running out, but a Silver Arrow was flying behind and Russell snatched pole position for himself and Mercedes. It was another strong display of pace from Russell, who has been deceptively fast in 2025.
While the spotlight was stolen by Russell, the ever-impressive rookie Kimi Antonelli also put up a great drive in his W25, taking fourth position and qualifying above the seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in fifth.
Fernando Alonso also impressed in his Aston Martin, qualifying in sixth position and beating the championship contender Lando Norris, who took seventh place. Charles Leclerc qualified eighth.
The last commendations go first to Isaack Hadjar, who secured ninth and is certainly one of the best rookies of the season. Lastly, Alexander Albon in 10th, who certainly had a great recovery after his stunning incident in Q1 with his engine cover blown over out of the blue.
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Leader |
| 1. | 63 | George Russel | Mercedes | 1:10.899m |
| 2. | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | +0.160s |
| 3. | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +0.221s |
| 4. | 12 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | +0.492s |
| 5. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +0.627s |
| 6. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +0.687s |
| 7. | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +0.726s |
| 8. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.783s |
| 9. | 6 | Isaack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | +0.968s |
| 10. | 23 | Alex Albon | Williams | +1.008s |
Q2
The show getting better with one of the tightest qualifying sessions in the calendar, with the top five being less than 0.100s of the leader.
With the lap times getting better minute after minute, Yuki Tsunoda was the first driver to be eliminated, although considering he has 10-place grid penalty due to an incident in FP2 he will be dropped all the way to the bottom.
This penalty promotes all the drivers following Tsunoda, with the first being the Argentine driver Franco Colapinto who was eliminated on 12th position but won’t start worse than 11. He is followed by Nico Hulkenberg on 13th, who keeps on extracting every second that Sauber has to give.
The last two eliminations of the Q2 session were sadly awarded to the Haas team and their two drivers, who never shown any signs of being in contention through the session and will need to climb some positions if they hope to score points on Sunday.
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 11. | 44 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | +0.099s |
| 12. | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine Renault | +0.139s |
| 13. | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Kick Sauber | +0.180s |
| 14. | 87 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | +0.337s |
| 15. | 18 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | +0.631s |
Q1
The F1 action restarted with the first qualifying session in Montreal. Multiple cars headed out heavy on fuel, with times improving by the minute.
Shocked faces all over the Williams garage as the session was red-flagged with five minutes on the clock. Albon’s FW47 engine cover was completely blown away as he was pushing through the main straight, leaving lots of debris on the track.
The session is resumed shortly after, and with so little time left, everybody swarmed the track to improve times.
William’s star Carlos Sainz had an incident by the end of the session as Hadjar impeded him. As such, Sainz couldn’t cut it for Q2. For the rookies, Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson had a tough day. Both drivers usually make their way out of Q1, but were eliminated this week.
For the more seasoned drivers, Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly had terrible days on the track with gaps of over 10-positions to their teammates and lots to improve for tomorrow’s race.
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 16. | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Kick Sauber | +0.007s |
| 17. | 6 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | +0.020s |
| 18. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +0.139s |
| 19. | 39 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | +0.147s |
| 20. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | +0.289s |
The F1 Canadian Grand Prix begins on Sunday, May 14, at 12:30 p.m. ET, on ESPN.
