Did Alex Albon secure pole position for George Russell?
Top spot in qualifying is the sort of result you’d never have felt comfortable predicting for the perennially underachieving Mercedes, even as Russell topped Q2 with what would end up being the day’s fastest time.
The W15 is too unpredictable and too peaky a car in which to have any confidence.
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Yet it was Russell who took provisional pole with a used set of tyres with a time that couldn’t be matched even by Max Verstappen on new rubber.
“It feels like we’re sort of dialling in that sweet spot right now,” Russell said, speaking glowingly of his upgraded Mercedes. “It feels like something we’ve been saying for a long time, in all honesty, but just really a sense of relief to actually see it translate into a pole position.”
The Briton is targeting the team’s first win since the 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix.
But is Mercedes really now in the fight?
Pole position was certainly a little lucky.
Russell turned onto the long back straight at the end of his pole lap just behind Alex Albon, who was heading into the pits.
It gave his Mercedes a crucial slipstream worth at least 0.1 seconds based on the time he gained on teammate Lewis Hamilton, with whom he was neck and neck coming out of the hairpin.
Without that boost he would have qualified third behind Lando Norris and perhaps fourth behind Oscar Piastri, who was only 0.103 seconds off the pace.
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And while Mercedes enjoyed its best qualifying performance of the year, Canada isn’t a great track on which to make development assessments. It features none of the loaded high-speed corners that really test these cars aerodynamically, meaning we don’t have the full picture.
The closeness of qualifying also played out in exactly the sort of unpredictable style forecast by the loss of track time to rain on Friday. While the inclement weather stayed away on Saturday, the hangover persisted all the way to Q3.
Teams and drivers didn’t have enough of a handle on the tyres and the track to consistently get the most out of the rubber. As predicted, the battle for grid position largely came down to who was on track at the right time with the right amount of heat in their tyres.
That certainly bit Piastri hard.
The Australian qualified a very close fourth, but his final lap was set unusually early in Q3, with McLaren betting that rain would arrive to spoil the final minutes of the session. Rather than be on track when the circuit was at its grippiest, he missed the best of the conditions and was pipped by his teammate.
Russell & Max post EXACT same time in Q3 | 02:42
But no-one got things worse than Ferrari.
Having boasted on Friday that he felt the car would be quick in all conditions, Charles Leclerc slumped to 11th ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz, a hard landing back on earth after his home victory in Monaco two weeks ago.
The car was slow from dawn on Saturday, lacking grip in dry conditions on the green and newly resurfaced track.
Ferrari appeared to struggle particularly with tyre warm-up, with the biggest chunk of time lost in the first two corners, though both drivers were gapped through every chicane around the lap.
Sainz came close to at least making it through to Q3, but a mistake at the final corner was too costly, leaving Ferrari without a top-10 contender for the first time since the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.
The Scuderia’s underperformance threatens to halt the title momentum it had been building through May. While overtaking is possible in Canada, top sped is crucial, and both Sainz and Leclerc clocked in near the bottom of the speed trap rankings.
They left the door wide open to some Q3 upsets, which RB and Daniel Ricciardo were only too happy to seize on a weighty day for the Red Bull program.
RICCIARDO RETURNS SERVE
It’s been a long time since a piece of television punditry went this viral.
Jacques Villeneuve set the F1 internet alight on Friday with some stinging criticism of Daniel Ricciardo to Sky Sports, declaring him washed up and clinging to his career through brand value rather than racecraft.
“If you can’t cut it, go home, there’s someone else to take your place,” he said. “There’s no reason to keep going and to keep finding excuses.”
Villeneuve’s Ricciardo beef is one of the most baffling in Formula 1. The 1997 world champion — whose career nosedived after his title-winning campaign — has spent years laying into the Aussie with digs that would normally be reserved for old on-track nemeses.
Yet the two drivers, more than 18 years apart in age, have had barely anything to do with each other.
Ricciardo lets rip in qualis, starts 5th | 01:00
Their seemingly non-existent relationship explains why it took Ricciardo until Saturday to hear Villeneuve had been trash-talking him on television — and even then he wasn’t sure what had been said.
But given Villeneuve’s history mouthing off in his direction, Ricciardo was happy to hit back.
“Top five. I’ve been quick all weekend. We’re less than 0.2 seconds from pole. Eat shit,” he told Sky Sports before expanding to written media.
“I still don’t know what he said, but I heard he’s been talking shit,” he said, per ESPN. “But he always does.
“I think he’s hit his head a few too many times, I don’t know if he plays ice hockey or something.
“I won’t give him the time of day, but all those people can suck it.
“I want to say more, but it’s all right. We’ll leave him behind.”
Villeneuve’s spray came one day before teammate Yuki Tsunoda re-signed with RB for 2025, turning the blowtorch on the Aussie in a direct duel with reserve driver Liam Lawson for the remaining seat at the team next season.
But Ricciardo denies he’s needed any additional motivation, particularly at a track that he’s enjoyed so much throughout his career.
“I’ve obviously been highly motivated to do more than I have been this year,” he said.
“Obviously [finishing fourth in the sprint in] Miami was a bit of a one-off. I know how good those results feel, and that’s why I do it, to feel those highs.
“Coming into the week everything felt right, I was really happy just to come back to this circuit and drive here, because I love it.
“Today is 10 years to the day of my first win, and that day changed my life, so there’s a lot of nice emotions coming into it, and I felt like I was ready to do some good shit.”
Asked for his reply on the Sky Sports post-qualifying coverage, Villeneuve attempted to claim credit for the result, though he also tempered his criticism, at least a little.
“He needs the push and the pressure, and it worked, it paid off,” he said.
“It’s working well. The car suits him this weekend. When you have a car that suits you, you drive at your best.
“That was one good qualifying. If he can carry on this weekend like this and then do four, five, six more races like this, he’ll be fine. But like he said, he’s been lacking consistency this year.
“He’s been given chances during this whole season. It’s been a tough season, and he keeps getting a chance.
“He needs to show it on track. Today was a good qualifying. He needs to carry on.”
“Why is he [Ricciardo] still in F1?” | 00:59
RICCIARDO OPTIMISTIC FOR BIG RESULT
Ricciardo doesn’t deny he needs to lift, and he’s optimistic he can carry on this weekend.
Fifth on the grid is his best starting position for a grand prix since Mexico last season, where he gamely held on to an impressive seventh place after a long race.
It follows a similarly eye-opening fourth in qualifying and the sprint in Miami earlier this year.
The seeds of the result were planted during Saturday practice, the sole fully dry practice session of the weekend.
With the forecast for qualifying and the grand prix mixed, teams went in different direction with their run plans.
RB chose to focus on qualifying, where it’s been in an increasingly tight battle with Aston Martin as the fifth quickest car.
While that leaves it potentially down on race pace, the Italian team is backing that its straight-line speed at the speed-sensitive circuit will be enough to keep it ahead of the chasing pack and maybe even help it to move forwards.
Yuki Tsunoda and Ricciardo were the second and sixth quickest drivers in the speed trap.
The strategy was so far worked. Ricciardo beat Fernando Alonso to fifth by 0.050 seconds.
The rolling five-race qualifying average now has RB as the fifth quickest car 0.147 seconds faster than the Aston Martin.
“I’m very pleased — I’m pretty jacked certainly,” Ricciardo said. “It’s just been a really good weekend. It’s been one of those weekends where I certainly haven’t really had any doubts. It’s one of those ones where everything’s just been feeling good.
“It’s nice to put the lap together in Q3, but I’m not surprised.
“I know when I feel like this I can do things like this. It’s just trying to get myself in this place more often. Obviously that’s what I’ve been missing this year. When I get it right, it goes pretty right.
“Credit to the team, both cars got in Q3. I feel like since we put the car on the track we’ve both been pretty comfortable. I think Yuki was struggling a bit more through the weekend, but he got it together in quali.
“I’ve been, honestly, really happy all weekend with the car, so that helps. It’s just a track I enjoy.”
To Sky Sports he added: “The line to turn 1 is pretty short. There’s a good chance of keeping it. Looking at quali times, it’s pretty close, so maybe we can go forward and not worry about cars behind. We’ll see. We’ll have some fun.”
Perez hits his car after Q1 flop! | 01:18
CONTRASTING FORTUNES FOR CONTRACTED PAIR
It’s been a busy week for the driver market.
Sergio Pérez arrived in Canada fresh from inking a two-year deal with Red Bull Racing that will take him to the end of 2026 at the championship-winning team.
Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, had his stellar first third of the campaign rewarded with another season at RB, Red Bull’s junior team that’s never finished higher than sixth in the standings.
Qualifying underlined how hard it is to justify both contracts.
Pérez bombed out of Q1 for the second straight race, and it’s the third consecutive round he’s failed to qualify inside the top 10.
With speculation suggesting his contract was agreed while F1 was in Europe, it appears his form slump started at almost the exact moment he put pen to paper.
It puts into a new and ironic context the comments made by both team boss Christian Horner and Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko earlier in the year that jokingly tied Pérez’s good form to the fact his contract was up for renewal.
Meanwhile, the Red Bull program’s second best performing driver — behind only Verstappen — made his fourth consecutive Q3 appearance.
Tsunoda has qualified inside the top 10 seven times this season. Pérez has made only six entries into Q3.
It’s deeply ironic that perhaps the program’s least dependable performer of the last 18 months now has his place at the most sought-after team secured for another two seasons while one of the grid’s compelling most up-and-comers is constricted to Red Bull’s other team.
What it does do at least is focus the attention on Ricciardo. The Australian undertook much soul-searching following an underwhelming performance at the Monaco Grand Prix and arrived in Canada refreshed with a new approach to this crucial year in his career, having reconsidered how thinly he spreads himself across off-track commitments.
The eight-time race winner has already cut back much of his extra-curricular workload, but he hinted in Montreal that he’d found more mental gains. So far his new attitude is paying dividends.
The Red Bull program has always forged its diamonds under pressure. Perhaps this weekend is when Ricciardo will finally start to shine again.