F1 Canadian Grand Prix: qualifying – live | Formula One
Key events
Only 0.003 between Antonelli and Russell in Q2.
Charles Leclerc looks almost distraught at being eighth, Franco Colapinto looks like he won the playoff final after finishing 10th.
Second Quarter Eliminations
And it ended with Hulkenberg, Lawson, Bortoleto, Gasly, Sainz and Bearman in the drop zone. Antonelli chose not to fly again, in complete safety.
Russell is fifth, just behind Antonelli, who will have the last word in Q2.
Hadjar the fastest, in 1’12”! Less than two tenths among the top five.
Hamilton flying and fastest, Leclerc in difficulty.
Hulkenberg, Sainz, Lawson, Bortoleto, Gasly and Bearman in the drop zone.
Russell does damage at the first corner and goes straight through. Not much time to improve on eighth place. Will he need it?
Leclerc had more problems, being slow to reach the pits. Will he have time to do a warm-up lap?
Leclerc falls back to 11th. There are still more than six minutes left, but his next lap only brings him ninth place.
Hadjar once again showed that he is a true Red Bull driver, briefly going second before Norris pipped him.
Antonelli noticeably faster than Russell. The Italian channels his anger/listens to Wolff’s advice and goes the fastest.
Hamilton – six times pole-sitter here, at the scene of his first GP victory – finished second.
Norris within 1:13, Piastri just behind.
Everyone is trying to raise these temperatures. Weaving? If they were spotted driving like this when these roads are just streets and not a circuit, then the Mounties wouldn’t bother using a breathalyzer.
The second trimester is gone.
Hamilton faces investigation for blocking Gasly.
First Quarter Eliminations
And that’s it for the first quarter, with the elimination of Ocon, Albon, Alonso, Perez, Stroll and Bottas.
Alonso can only manage 18th, unable to repeat his lead in SQ2.
Antonelli is first and Russell eighth among those who took their foot off the gas.
Bearman’s car lost something on the left front of the car. He’ll need a quick update, but he’s safe in the second quarter it seems.
But Gasly, who had been blocked by Hamilton in previous races, placed Ocon in 16th place.
Bortoleto, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Stroll and Gasly in the drop zone.
Bearman on the radio: “Oh, a piece of my car came off.”
Leclerc now has a time, up to ninth, avoiding any late stress – provided he has no more takedowns.
The track gets faster and faster. Lindblad is now third, not somewhere he should be close to ultimately.
Isack Hadjar once again shows he is a good choice from Red Bull, splitting the Mercedes.
Leclerc blocked and went through a chicane.
And then Russell beats the Red Bull by a quarter, then Antonelli goes another half a second faster.
Verstappen, Norris, Piastri all go faster than the Mercedes duo.
Russell says the ride is much harder than yesterday. Leclerc down after having his first time deleted.
Russell briefly moved into second, then Antonelli beat him by 0.015 seconds. First days and only in the first trimester.
Verstappen within 1:14, as did Norris.
Piastri within 1h15. It’s 10°C cooler than yesterday, so it will be difficult to warm up the tires, Brundle reminds us.
Dangerous release in the pit lane, a wobbly rim for Alonso.
Russell is the first of the major players to exit, followed at a safe distance by Antonelli.
T1 in progress
Green light…and the lower field heads towards the track.
21C and cloudy in Quebec.
We’re five minutes into the first trimester.
Lewis Hamilton, although tire degradation contributed to his slip from fourth to sixth place at the end of the sprint, seems to have been happy with his settings, so all the work at Ferrari is on Charles Leclerc’s car.
Ted Kravitz is in pit lane watching what the teams are doing. Red Bull caught his eye by looking to add downforce for the wet tomorrow; They admit they can’t compete in the dry qualifiers, but there are benefits to playing longer.
Rival teams – notably McLaren, which had its only internal conflict last year between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – will look to capitalize. Ferrari, who are so quick off the grid, will be eager to break through to at least the second row for the main event, giving Lewis Hamilton and/or Charles Leclerc the chance to threaten the top two, even if they cannot get straight to the front row.
Wolff was pleased with Mercedes’ starts, particularly Russell, and blamed the car, not Antonelli, for being slightly slower. But still…
At the time, David James was catching more crosses than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League – because there were more of them, because opposing teams knew that sooner or later he would let one go. A pair of successful starts does not prevent the perception of a vulnerability.
This was a difficult incident to cover during the sprint as the TV director showed nothing immediately and late unnecessary footage on board, only projecting the best views after the race had finished. We’ve all heard Antonelli’s complaints, which, although they went too far, did him no favors.
For me the key points are that Russell couldn’t just disappear and the stewards didn’t get involved, as they could have done even though both men are on the same team.
Wolff chats with Sky. He is “100% sure he will look like a fool at times this year” after discussing the rules of engagement, or “racing intent” as they prefer to say.
If you were a multi-millionaire team manager, what would you have said in the last few hours? The more important point, I suppose, is that Wolff reportedly told Antonelli to focus on what’s ahead of him, which is qualifying. Mercedes will now look for another front row lockout and everything else can wait.
What do you think? Let me know via philip.cornwall@theguardian.com
Welcome to qualifying, starting at 9pm BST/4pm EDT.
Has everyone caught their breath? Has everyone calmed down? The first sprint race in Montreal looks likely to feature in the reviews of the season after George Russell and Kimi Antonelli nearly failed and the latter reacted furiously, forcing Toto Wolff on team radio to tell the teenager to calm down. Three hours later, they will be back, but not wheel to wheel since the team sends its drivers spaced out.
(For a moment I thought about the drug connotations of “spaced out,” then let it go, then went back to the quotes, and there was Antonelli saying that Russell had been “very naughty.” God, I hated the Shamen’s anthem to MDMA, Ebeneezer Goode, but that opening line “nasty, naughty, very naughty” stuck.)
Reuters reports that Russell said he had to check the video, but based on how he felt at the time:
“For my part, I didn’t think I did anything wrong and it wasn’t investigated. I guess the race directors and stewards thought the same thing.
“You never get overtaken on the outside of that corner,” he added, saying Antonelli’s driving was risky. “Congratulations to Kimi for giving it a try…I respect that.
“You compete hard, but fair, and on my side, there’s never any bad intentions toward anything. But in the same vein, I’m not just going to say hello to someone. And we’re both fighting for our championship.”
Of Antonelli, Reuters said:
He added that the team would clarify the situation after reviewing the race. “The main thing for the team is that there is no contact, that we do not collide.”
We’ll see what Mercedes says later, but you imagine there will be more internal discussions once everyone has packed up and left Quebec.
Giles Richards sprint race report
Here’s Giles’ take on Russell and Antonelli:
They had the race in their hands after both making a good start from the front row and Russell finished well despite pressure from Norris, but the debrief at Mercedes is likely to still be a spirited affair.
Still, the win was the good start to the weekend that Russell was looking for. He won the season-opening race in Australia and the first sprint of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix, but with Antonelli winning the final three races, the young Italian took a strong lead in the world championship. Russell needed to reassert himself and did so in the first real test.
Read his full report:
