Lando Norris had topped the timesheets in final practice and was looking to pip Oscar Piastri to pole to give himself the best chance of beating his McLaren team-mate and F1 title rival on Sunday
George Russell snatched pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix at the last, knocking Max Verstappen off the top of the timesheets. Oscar Piastri was third quickest behind them but Lando Norris had to settle for just seventh on the grid.
Norris was quickest in final practice but couldn’t find his groove and never looked likely to be in the fight for pole. And so it proved with the Brit some way off the pace and team-mate Piastri also unable to secure top spot.
That was because Russell produced a lap he called “mighty” which blew everyone out of the water and secured the Brit’s first pole position of 2025. And Verstappen also got the better of the McLarens to put his Red Bull on the front row.
Piastri was happy with third ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton, who matched his best Grand Prix qualifying result to date as a Ferrari driver in fifth. But Norris and Charles Leclerc were the most disappointed at the end of proceedings, seventh and eighth on the grid respectively.
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News came shortly after the start of qualifying that Yuki Tsunoda had been handed a 10-place grid drop for ignoring red flags in practice. That meant he needed to make it to Q3 to have any hope of avoiding being last on the grid and cleared the first hurdle at least.
Not so luck was Carlos Sainz, who suffered a shock Q1 exit though it soon became clear why. Replays showed he had been impeded significantly by Isack Hadjar during his final flying lap, with a grid penalty likely coming for the Frenchman, though that will not make the Williams driver he got in the way of feel much better.
Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson were also very frustrated to have been eliminated in a very tight Q1, with just eight-tenths of a second covering the whole grid. Lance Stroll could only manage to go 18th fastest in his hometown, while Gabriel Bortoleto was the other driver stuck in the bottom five.
A bizarre moment saw the session red-flagged when the engine cover came off Alex Albon’s car during that first part of qualifying. He was able to make it back to the garage to have another fitted and, crucially, went quick enough to avoid an early exit along with his team-mate.
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Tsunoda’s quest to avoid being marooned in last place on the grid failed as he was quick enough only for 11th on the road, before that 10-place drop was applied. So Franco Colapinto would inherit 11th on the grid from the Japanese with Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman the others out at the end of Q2.
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