George Russell powered to pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix with a spectacular last-gasp flying lap on Saturday ahead of his championship-leading Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli.

The 28-year-old Briton, who had won the sprint race from pole position earlier, produced a stunning lap to beat the precocious Italian teenager by 0.068 seconds.

World champion Lando Norris was third for McLaren ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri with Ferrari's seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton taking fifth ahead of the Red Bulls of four-time champion Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

Charles Leclerc was eighth in the second Ferrari ahead of Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto of Alpine.

It was a third consecutive Canadian pole for Russell and he did nothing to hide his satisfaction in regaining the initiative after Antonelli had reeled off three consecutive poles and wins at the previous events.

"It always feels great to pull a lap out of nowhere like that," said Russell, who had a chat with Antonelli after the pair clashed in the earlier sprint race.

"We made some changes based on the forecast for tomorrow, which may have hurt us a little bit. It took the car out of sync a little and Kimi was more competitive than I was, but I managed to re-dial my driving."

Antonelli said: "It was very difficult with tyres and putting them in the right window. There was a bit more on the table for me, but George did a great lap, but now we have our eyes on tomorrow." (AFP)



Edited by Tony Sabine