Mercedes’ George Russell snatched pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Russell beat Verstappen by 0.160 seconds to grab the fastest time just seconds after the Dutchman himself had taken it away from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
The Australian’s team-mate and title rival Lando Norris could manage only seventh place, behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and a superb performance from Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin.
The grid sets up a battle into the first corner between Briton Russell and Verstappen in Montreal, just a race after their controversial conflict at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen was penalised 10 seconds and given three licence penalty points for deliberately colliding with Russell in the closing stages of the race and is one licence point away from a race ban.
Russell had felt on arriving at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Saturday morning that he had a good chance of setting pole, and his confidence was well placed.
Like Verstappen using the medium tyre for his final lap, Russell said it was “one of the most exhilarating laps of my life”.
He added: “I swear, every corner I was looking at my lap-time delta on my steering wheel and I was going 0.1secs quicker, 0.1secs quicker. I got to the last corner and I was 0.6secs up and I thought: ‘This lap’s mighty.’ It felt like the car was on rails. I am so pleased with pole.”
Russell said he “had goosebumps” after crossing the line. “I don’t think I’ve ever had that before,” he said.
Verstappen said: “I felt quite good all weekend. The car was in a good window. This track is quite cool. It feels like a big go-kart on the kerbs.
“You need to be quite efficient on the straights, which I think we are. The tough choice was the tyres and I think we chose the right ones. We will see what we can do tomorrow. I am already happy to be on the front row and I hope we can have a solid race.”
McLaren had had a difficult weekend and Piastri said he was “pretty happy with third”.
The grid gives the Australian a good chance to extend his championship lead over Norris, who had a tricky session.
He missed the final chicane on his first lap of the top 10 shootout and had to be reminded not to push too much in the braking zones.
His second attempt was slower than Alonso’s first and Norris failed to improve on his final run, and was bumped further down by Russell, Antonelli and Hamilton.
Norris said: “Just a couple of big mistakes. One, hitting the wall on the last lap in the exit of (Turn) Seven and first lap, I think, last corner. So, yeah, just two mistakes that cost me, I guess.
“We’ve clearly not been as quick as normal. I think that’s just because of the layout of the track. I think the cars have been performing relatively well and I was happy through all of qualifying. Maybe not the car to take pole today, but good enough to be up there and fighting for top three.”
Team principal Andrea Stella said: “Lando just tried too hard. I think he felt that the speed was there, but on this track if you try too hard then you may have quite a bit of price to pay.”
Alonso’s sixth place was Aston Martin’s best grid position of the season and confirms the progress the team have made since introducing an upgrade at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
“We maximised for sure the potential of the car,” Alonso said. “I feel happier with the car since Imola, since the upgrade.
“At the beginning of the year, it was a challenge to understand what the car needed and what kind of direction in the set-up I needed to go, but since Imola I am more comfortable and I can be more precise on the feedback and make the changes that I know will make the car faster and sometimes you succeed on that.
“Last four races, four Q3 (places). It makes the whole team a little more relaxed.”
Rounding out the top 10 behind Leclerc were Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Williams’ Alex Albon.
However, Hadjar was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Williams’ Carlos Sainz at the end of the first session, preventing the Spaniard from progressing. Alpine’s Franco Colapinto will now start 10th.
Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, who qualified 11th, will start at the back because of a 10-place penalty for overtaking Piastri’s damaged McLaren after a red flag during final practice.
Stewards rejected Tsunoda’s explanations for his actions, saying Piastri was not going slow enough to excuse the breaking of a safety rule.
By BBC Sports
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