The Briton beat his teammate Antonelli in sprint qualifying. Norris and Piastri take the second row. Verstappen, seventh. Colapinto, thirteenth. Alonso, sixteenth. Pérez, seventeenth. The sprint race will take place on Saturday.
The Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal already has its starting grid for the sprint race of the Canadian Grand Prix. George Russell was fastest in sprint qualifying, followed by his teammate Kimi Antonelli, with this Mercedes achieved a resounding 1-2 that allows them to face the short race on Saturday with the peace of mind of having both cars on the front row.
The second row will be a McLaren monopoly, Lando Norris, reigning world champion, will start third, while Oscar Piastri will start fourth. The orange team, which introduced upgrades in Montreal, will seek to close the gap to the championship leaders on a circuit that has historically resisted them.
Lewis Hamilton, with his Ferrari, will start fifth. The Briton, who this week confirmed he has a contract for 2027 and is not thinking about retirement, will start ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc, sixth. The Italian team thus had no representation in the first two rows and will have to come back in the sprint.
Max Verstappen, seventh, was the best of Red Bull, the Dutchman, who has been very critical of the new regulations, managed to qualify ahead of Isack Hadjar (eighth) on a weekend where the RB22 showed signs of improvement, although still far from the leaders.
Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) surprised with ninth place, while the top 10 is closed by Carlos Sainz, who left a great image for Williams who needed a place like that.
The midfield has several open fronts, Hülkenberg (Audi) will start eleventh, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) twelfth, Franco Colapinto (Alpine) will start thirteenth, just ahead of Esteban Ocon (Haas) and his teammate Oliver Bearman, who will start fifteenth. The Argentine, who achieved his best result in F1 with a seventh place in Miami, will seek to score points in the sprint.
Bad news came for the teams at the back, Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will start sixteenth, followed by Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) seventeenth, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) eighteenth, Gasly will start nineteenth, Valtteri Bottas twentieth and Liam Lawson twenty first.
The sprint race will take place on Saturday at 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT). It will be 19 laps of the Canadian track, with points for the top eight finishers. Qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix will take place later, after the sprint.
