Russell defeats Antonelli and Norris in close battle to take Sprint pole in Montreal

After completing SQ1 and SQ2 on the medium tyres, drivers switched to soft tyres for the final session of the day, where the Briton proved to be the quickest, finishing ahead of his teammate and his championship rival.

The two McLaren drivers, Norris and Oscar Piastri, will occupy the second row of the grid. Lewis Hamilton was in fine form today, but the seven-time world champion only finished fifth. Charles Leclerc will line up alongside the Briton. Red Bull Racing had a difficult day, as Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar will start from seventh and eighth respectively on Saturday. Arvid Lindblad and Carlos Sainz completed the top ten with strong performances from both drivers.

Following his incident in SQ1, Fernando Alonso progressed to the second session of the day but was unable to complete a lap time, leaving only 15 drivers in contention for a place in SQ3.

The drivers from the four frontrunning teams were never in danger of elimination, despite Hadjar and Verstappen sitting eighth and ninth in the closing moments of the session. Alongside both Ferraris, both Mercedes, both McLarens, and both Red Bulls, Lindblad and Sainz progressed to SQ3.

Together with Franco Colapinto, the two Audis and the two Haas were eliminated.

Alexander Albon's session was effectively over before Sprint Qualifying had even begun. After the Thai-British driver struck a groundhog during the weekend's sole free practice session, Williams was not able to repair the heavily damaged car in time. Liam Lawson, whose car also caused a red flag in FP1, was unable to set a lap time as well.

With around two minutes to go, Alonso caused a red flag after locking up into Turn 3 and crashing into the barrier. Following a lengthy delay due to repairs to the tecpro barrier, only Hamilton, Sainz and Lance Stroll were able to set a final lap in SQ1. As a result, Pierre Gasly was eliminated alongside both Cadillac entries, as well as Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas. Stroll was also unable to improve. Hamilton was the quickest in this session, setting a 1:13.8.