Mercedes’ George Russell claimed pole position for 2024 Canadian Grand Prix in a dramatic climax to Qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton topped FP3 but come Qualifying, it was his teammate – Russell who snatched pole by virtue of having set the fastest lap first before Max Verstappen.
McLaren meanwhile locked out the second row with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in a strong Qualifying performance from the Papaya, whilst there were some shock exits in Q1 and Q2.
FP3
With dry conditions forecast initially, Verstappen and Perez were first out on track but the Dutchman backed out of his first flier due to a mistake at the final corner, whilst Perez set 1m 18.096 as the initial benchmark on medium tyres.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly however soon beat his time with 1m 16.412 in the fifth minute but the red flags were out barely a minute later, after Guanyu Zhou spun out at Turn 2 after he locked his rear and front-left brakes through Turn 1.
Once the session resumed, Verstappen soon set the pace with 1m 14.983 set on his second flier but Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso quickly seized control on the hard tyre as he went 0.113 seconds quicker.
Come the half-hour mark, Alonso sat top with 1m 14.445 but was quickly displaced by Williams’ Logan Sargeant who posted 1m 14.355 on an early soft tyre run.
George Russell and Alex Albon then further lowered the fastest lap until Hamilton produced 1m 13.464 in the 35th minute, whilst McLaren’s Lando Norris two minutes later went 0.011s shy of his British compatriot.
Russell responded in the 47th minute with 1m 13.274 to go quickest but Hamilton on his next lap found 0.725s to go even faster with 1m 12.549 with 10 minutes left on the clock.
As the checkered flag fell, nobody could beat Hamilton’s lap time as the seven-time champion headed the timesheet from
Zhou was the only driver to not set a soft-tyre lap time after he failed to get back out on track after he caused the early red flag.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m 12.549 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.374 |
| 3 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.408 |
| 4 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.477 |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.717 |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | + 0.730 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.744 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.791 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.793 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.800 |
| 11 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.890 |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 1.021 |
| 13 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | + 1.093 |
| 14 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 1.114 |
| 15 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | + 1.167 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.188 |
| 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 1.228 |
| 18 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.331 |
| 19 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.526 |
| 20 | Guanyu Zhou | Sauber | + 6.107 |
Qualifying
Q1
With dark clouds lingering above the track, several drivers were straight on track and Verstappen set 1m 15.194 as the early benchmark time, which soon got beaten as Norris, Stroll and Russell soon exchanged fastest laps.
Once everyone had set a representative lap time, the bottom five compromised of; Hamilton, Perez, Gasly, Ocon and Zhou, although Hamilton, Gasly and Ocon soon got themselves out of trouble approaching the final minutes.
At the checkered flag, Zhou was eliminated as the slowest driver and was joined on the back row by last year’s second-placed starter – Hulkenberg.
Ocon qualified 18th in his first Qualifying session since he announced he would leave Alpine at end of season, albeit behind Bottas and Perez who qualified 17th and 16th respectively.
Ocon however will start at the back due to having picked up a five-place grid penalty after his collision with Gasly at the Monaco GP.
Verstappen meanwhile topped Q1 with 1m 12.360 ahead of Tsunoda who had re-signed with RB in-between sessions.
Q2
Russell headed a queue of cars out onto the circuit as the rain began to arrive lightly during which Verstappen tried to squeeze into the mid-pack, but the three-time champion instead ended up joining the last cars to leave the pit-lane.
Russell proceeded to set 1m 13.121 as the benchmark time but Hamilton went 0.017s, yet the pair were beaten by Piastri who went fastest with 1m 12.462 to set the pace.
Norris, Stroll, Albon, Gasly and Sargeant meanwhile found themselves in the bottom five after their opening laps, as Russell produced 1m 12.323 to go quickest.
Once the checkered flag fell, Ferrari suffered a shock double elimination as Leclerc qualified 11th just ahead of Sainz, whilst Sargeant managed to qualify 0.008s off Sainz in 13th position ahead of Magnussen and Gasly.
Up front, Russell finished fastest with 1m 11.742 ahead of Hamilton and Norris in a British 1-2-3.
Q3
Despite the threat of lingering rain, the track was dry at the start of the final segment with Piastri first out on track, and the Aussie set an early benchmark time of 1m 12.713 but Verstappen went 0.355s quicker as Alonso and Stroll slotted into third and fourth respectively.
Once everyone set their first lap times on used tyres, Russell emerged quickest on 1m 12.000 ahead of Hamilton, Verstappen, Piastri, Alonso, Stroll, Albon, Tsunoda, Norris and Ricciardo.
Following a quick pit-stop for new tyres, Piastri leapt up to second on his first flier of his final run but Norris displaced his teammate a minute later to go second and 0.021s shy of pole.
As the checkered flag fell, Russell clung on for pole by virtue of having set his pole time first ahead of Verstappen, which marked the first time that the pole time was set by more than one driver since 1997 European GP.
Norris and Piastri secured a second-row lockout for McLaren ahead of Ricciardo, Alonso, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Stroll and Albon.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1m 12.000 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.000 |
| 3 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.021 |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.103 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | + 0.178 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.228 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.280 |
| 8 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | + 0.414 |
| 9 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.701 |
| 10 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.796 |
| 11 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m 12.691 |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.037 |
| 13 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 0.045 |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.225 |
| 15 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.249 |
| 16 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1m 13.326 |
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | + 0.040 |
| 18 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.109 |
| 19 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.652 |
| 20 | Guanyu Zhou | Sauber | + 0.966 |
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