Russell edges Antonelli to take pole for Canada sprint

George Russell bounced back after a difficult recent run to beat Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli to sprint pole at the Canadian Grand Prix. The Briton, who is 20 points adrift of the Italian after four races this season, headed Antonelli by 0.068 seconds after being fastest on both runs in final qualifying. Lando Norris headed an all-McLaren second row, 0.315secs off pole and 0.019secs in front of team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Ferrari and Red Bull completed a two-by-two top eight with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Charles Leclerc and then Max Verstappen in front of Isack Hadjar. Russell came to Montreal looking to turn around what he admitted had been a "turbulent" start to the season , in which Antonelli has won three of the four grands prix so far, and he has started the weekend off well. "It feels great after a tough Miami but I never doubted myself," said Russell. "I always knew what I could do. This is an amazing circuit, high grip, and feels like you're driving a proper grand prix car." Mercedes have a major upgrade on their car for this race and Russell said it had made a significant difference. "It's definitely feeling great," he said. "The team have done a great job to bring this forward. Pleased to have it on the car and pleased to be back in P1. It's been a little while but still a big focus for tomorrow." Antonelli said he had started his lap with his tyres under temperature and described his session as "messy". McLaren also brought an upgrade to Montreal, their second in as many races, but while it kept them within range of Mercedes it was not enough to counterbalance the effect of Mercedes on this track, where the world champions have often struggled. Norris said: "A good surprise. After this morning, we were a little bit worried about how far off we were.

Key points

• Ferrari and Red Bull completed a two-by-two top eight with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Charles Leclerc and then Max Verstappen in front of Isack Hadjar.
• Russell came to Montreal looking to turn around what he admitted had been a "turbulent" start to the season , in which Antonelli has won three of the four grands prix so far, and he has started the…
• "It feels great after a tough Miami but I never doubted myself," said Russell.
• "I always knew what I could do.
• This is an amazing circuit, high grip, and feels like you're driving a proper grand prix car." Mercedes have a major upgrade on their car for this race and Russell said it had made a significant di…