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Two weeks on from their clash in Spain, George Russell took pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix off Max Verstappen. Here’s the session report.
Here’s the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix grid
Verstappen takes pole back from Piastri – but Russell beats them both! The Mercedes driver snatches pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Piastri takes the top spot back from Verstappen, Norris stays seventh.
Norris gets a clean lap in this time but it’s only good enough for fifth place behind the two Mercedes.
Russell takes third, 0.268s off Verstappen, and Antonelli is just a few hundredths behind in fourth.
Verstappen is even quicker in the first sector and he snatches provisional pole position away from Piastri by two hundredths of a second.
Leclerc produces a 1’11.729. Norris goes off at the final chicane. Piastri conjures up a superb lap, 1’11.273, to lead the times. Alonso slots in third.
Q3 is go. Leclerc quickest through sector one but Piastri takes it off him.
Q2 is over and the following drivers are eliminated: Yuki Tsunoda, Franco Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg, Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon.
Hadjar goes ninth and knocks Tsunoda out! That means the Red Bull driver will start last for the third time in the last four rounds.
Tsunoda slips to 10th and Hadjar behind him is on a quick one.
A great lap by Colapinto nabs him the final place in Q3 for now. Tsunoda down to 11th.
Currently in the drop zone: Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto, Isack Hadjar, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg.
Albon goes seventh and that leaves Tsunoda 10th, safe by just two hundredths of a second.
Russell goes sixth, Antonelli eighth.
Tsunoda on softs laps half a second off Verstappen and goes seventh. Behind him Hadjar improves to 10th.
Verstappen takes the mediums and goes quickest with a 1’11.638. Norris and Piastri lap within a tenth of a second of that.
The Hadjar-Sainz incident will be investigated after the session.
Q1 is over and the following drivers are eliminated: Gabriel Bortoleto, Carlos Sainz Jnr, Lance Stroll, Liam Lawson and Pierre Gasly.
Sainz was badly held up by Hadjar on the way into turn six. Hadjar’s radio message indicate he thought the Williams driver was not on a flying lap.
Disaster for Sainz who misses the cut by two hundredths of a second.
Bearman up to 11th. Lawson drops out. Albon goes six and knocks Stroll out.
Bortoleto stays 16th but the other four drivers in the drop zone are improving their times.
Norris goes quickest with a 1’11.826.
The session has resumed. Norris has taken a fresh set of soft tyres, having fallen to 12th place.
Currently in the drop zone: Carlos Sainz Jnr, Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon, Oliver Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg.
Alexander Albon’s Williams has shed a huge piece of its engine cover on the straight approaching turn 13. The session has been red-flagged.
Tsunoda moves up to ninth so his chances of reaching Q2 look decent but that penalty will surely leave him at or near the back.
Max Verstappen goes quickest on softs with a 1’12.273 but is pipped by Fernando Alonso on the mediums by three hundredths of a second.
The stewards have given Yuki Tsunoda a 10-place grid drop for overtaking under a red flag in final practice.
Lewis Hamilton went off at turn one earlier then had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at turn nine so he’s yet to post a representative time.
Lando Norris slots in behind the Mercedes but Oscar Piastri beats them with a 1’12.332.
The stewards confirm no action against Gabriel Bortoleto for overtaking under a red flag in final practice.
Mercedes have split their approach for this session, Andrea Kimi Antonelli running on the mediums to begin with. He goes second, six hundredths of a second off Russell.
Tsunoda produces a 1’13.287, George Russell beats that by seven tenths of a second to go fastest, both on softs. That’s quite a bit closer to the pace for Tsunoda than he was in final practice.
Tsunoda, who is definitely one to watch in this session, joins the track.
Q1 is go. Williams send their drivers out first followed by the Haas pair, those four on softs, but the two Alpines are on mediums. They tried that in Imola, where the same tyre compounds were used, but ended up switching back to softs.
Some teams are telling their drivers that the light panel at turn 12 is not working on their system, but it should work on the track.
The slowest five drivers across practice were Ocon, Bortoleto, Hulkenberg, Colapinto and Tsunoda. Will all five escape Q1?
With just over 20 minutes until the start of qualifying there’s still no word yet from the stewards on whether Yuki Tsunoda or Gabriel Bortoleto will be punished for overtaking cars under red flags in final practice. Tsunoda, who said yesterday he must reach Q3 this weekend, was slowest in final practice.
Last year’s pole winner George Russell has also been near the top end of the times all weekend and was third after practice. Max Verstappen, who matched his pole position time last year, also looked within range but stronger showings from Ferrari and Mercedes could spell trouble for Red Bull.
Ferrari look in decent shape. Charles Leclerc, who missed almost all of yesterdays running after crashing, rebounded to set the second-fastest time, less than a tenth of a second off Norris. Lewis Hamilton was close behind.
Lando Norris led final practice but McLaren haven’t looked quite as strong at this track as they have at other venues so far this year. His team mate Oscar Piastri in particular has appeared less confident and clipped the ‘Wall of Champions’ during final practice.
Qualifying for the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix is coming up next.
2025 Canadian Grand Prix
- Don’t boo Piastri, Norris tells British Grand Prix fans
- Fine teams for “long shot” protests like Red Bull’s in Canada, says Wolff
- Verstappen refuses to say whether he supported Red Bull’s latest Russell protests
- No change to McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ after Canadian GP collision – Piastri
- The driver and car explanations for how Piastri turned the tables on Norris
