Month: June 2024

George Russell won a dramatic Austrian Grand Prix following long-time leader Max Verstappen collided with Lando Norris.

The Red Bull and McLaren pair made contact at the Red Bull Ring’s Turn 3 with seven laps of the 71-lap race after Norris had cut into Verstappen’s lead after the triple champion had suffered a long second pit stop.

Several times Norris attacked at Turn 3 all while collecting track limits strikes during his chase to get into Verstappen’s DRS range.

On lap 59, Norris dived to the inside and locked up as Verstappen moved across, which meant the McLaren slid off into the runoff and let the Red Bull by on the run to Turn 4.

This was not enough to stop Norris from getting a five-second time addition for track limits and yet, it did not matter as the pair came to blows.

On lap 54, Norris moved to Verstappen’s outside as Turn 3 approached and when the Red Bull moved left they touched and both went off with punctures.

Each had to pit, with Norris retiring with damage to this rear floor, which meant Russell, who had been third for all of the race behind the top two, inherited the lead as he continued on.

A short virtual safety car was required to clear debris from the track with Russell lapping a few seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz, but in the closing laps the Mercedes driver maintained his lead to secure a second Formula 1 career Grand Prix win.

At the start, Verstappen made a good getaway from pole and easily ran clear of Norris in the first stint, where McLaren tried to reassure its charge his extra set of medium tyres would make the difference later on, as Red Bull looked set to use to hards after the mediums the whole field had started on.

But that appeared a faint hope as Verstappen simply clear across the first stint – his lead approaching six seconds before he pitted on lap 23 to take the hards.

Norris came in at the same time, with the Red Bull being released into his path and forcing the McLaren to brake as he approached his pitbox in an incident race control reviewed by decided was not worth referring to the race stewards.

In the second stint, Verstappen again pulled clear, although not as quickly in stint one, with his lead reaching a maximum of eight seconds just past half distance.

Here Norris started to take time back, with Verstappen struggling to keep the hards alive and even keep the lapped Haas cars behind him at this stage.

Red Bull kept Verstappen out for longer than he wanted before he was pulled in to take used mediums as his lead came down to 6.5 seconds – his pre-race extra set of hards – on lap 51 at the same time as Norris came in behind.

A slow left-rear tyre change and then a conservative release this time meant Verstappen’s previous lead was suddenly reduced to under two seconds, with Norris pushing hard to get into DRS and this kicked off all the drama that was to follow.

Behind Russell, Piastri finished 1.9 seconds adrift of a surprise victor, with Sainz third – having been overtaken by the McLaren when Piastri pulled a bold around-the-outside move at Turn 6 just after the Verstappen/Norris clash.

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth – his race featuring a five-second time penalty for crossing the pit entry line at his first stop, the seven-time world champion picking floor damage by hitting the Turn 8 kerbs too hard and Piastri passing him by late in the second stint.

Verstappen made it home in fifth, with a ten-second time addition for causing the collision with Norris in the stewards’ view.

Nico Hulkenberg beat Sergio Perez to sixth, with Kevin Magnussen eighth in a double points finish for Haas in a race where its drivers battled each other hard early on.

Daniel Ricciardo took ninth for RB and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten after prevailing in a close and hard mid-race scrap with his Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon.

So a dramatic race in which best friends Lando Norris and Max Verstappen making contact while fighting for the lead. George Russell benefitted from this to take his second win of his career.

Austrian Grand Prix, race results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:24:22.798
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +1.906s
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +4.533s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +23.142s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +37.253s
6 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +54.088s
7 Sergio Perez Red Bull +54.672s
8 Kevin Magnussen Haas +60.355s
9 Daniel Ricciardo RB +61.169s
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine +61.766s
11 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +67.056s
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine +68.325s
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB +1 lap
15 Alexander Albon Williams +1 lap
16 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
17 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
18 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1 lap
19 Logan Sargeant Williams +2 laps
20 Lando Norris McLaren DNF

This was the perfect Saturday for Max Verstappen. Won the sprint race earlier and following that result, the triple champion achieved pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Lining up on the front row is Lando Norris. Repeating the same result like the sprint qualifying with this front row. His McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri should’ve been third quickest but had the time deleted due to track limits. So George Russell got promoted to P3 for Mercedes.

After being put under much pressure from Norris and McLaren in sprint qualifying and Saturday’s first race of the weekend, Verstappen was in command throughout the qualifying session that sets the grid for the main event – particularly after he swept through Q2 with a time of one minute, 04.469 seconds that Norris could not get near.

In Q3, Verstappen led the leading pack around and went quicker still with a time of one minute, 04.426 seconds, with Norris chasing him at this stage 0.361 seconds slower but with an edge in the first sector.

On the second runs, Max still could not beat Lando’s session-leading sector one time and then did not better his personal best in the middle third of the lap, but a superb final sector improved the pole time to one minute, 04.314 seconds.

Norris shuffled his teammate Oscar Piastri back to claim second before the other McLaren had its best time deleted to running too wide at Turn 6 on the second Q3 runs.

Russell then moved into third with the final Q3 run, which was not spoiled by Charles Leclerc going off for Ferrari ahead.

The Scuderia’s post-sprint changes appeared to have made it much more competitive, with Carlos Sainz ending up fourth and one position better than he managed in sprint qualifying.

But Leclerc was its best hope in Q3 as he had been close to the McLaren drivers’ times despite being on used tyres in Q2 and then at the start of Q3, but on his single new tyre run Leclerc clipped the Turn 6 gravel and lost time, then went off dramatically at the final two corners.

Leclerc being able to drive through the runoff meant no yellow flags flew to interrupt the laps of the chasing Mercedes drivers, as Lewis Hamilton ended up fifth and Russell leapt up the order.

Leclerc finished sixth, promoted by Piastri’s fall to seventh, with Sergio Perez eighth after being left with no new softs to run in Q3 in the other Red Bull.

Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top ten for Haas and Alpine, as Hamilton too faces a post-session investigation for dragging a Mercedes jack out into the pitlane as he left his garage at the start of Q3.

At the end of Q2, several drivers set personal bests but failed to beat Ocon’s time – despite running behind him on the track that was still gripping up.

These were Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen, while behind them Pierre Gasly lost his best time to track limits at Turn 6 that had the Alpine’s right-side wheels skating through the adjacent gravel trap.

Gasly losing his best time put him behind Magnussen, with Yuki Tsunoda P14 and Fernando Alonso P15 – the latter complaining he “nearly crashed” at Turns 7 and 10 on his run midway through Q2.

Also in that segment, Hulkenberg was clocked possibly joining the fast lane in the pits ahead of Sergio Perez, despite on having his front wheels over the white line as the regulations require, which followed the Haas driver being involved in a similar incident in Q1 and both instances will be investigated now qualifying had been completed.

In Q1, Alonso’s last-gasp improvement knocked out Alex Albon – despite the Williams driver doing a personal best on his last run in the opening segment, where he was the first to take the flag and so missed the last bits of track evolution.

Behind came Lance Stroll in the other Aston Martin, Valtteri Bottas – the only driver to fail to beat their personal best right at the end of the Q1 fallers – Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu.

Austrian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:04.314
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:04.718
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:04.840
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:04.851
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:04.903
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:05.044
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:05.048
8 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:05.202
9 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:05.385
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:05.883
11 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:05.289
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:05.359
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:05.412
15 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:05.639
16 Alexander Albon Williams 1:05.736
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:05.819
18 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:05.847
19 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:05.856
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:06.061

Defending champion Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix sprint race after holding off an intense early attack from the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

After the sprint had been shortened to 23 laps as an extra formation lap was required due to photographers standing behind the barriers at the first corner posing a safety risk, Verstappen easily led away from pole ahead of Norris.

For the rest of the opening lap, Norris defended against Piastri, who had started third, while behind Carlos Sainz battled by George Russell’s Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton chased on in sixth.

With Verstappen unable to escape DRS threat from Norris in the early laps, the Red Bull driver was even moved to defend the inside lines at Turns 3 and 4, before Norris attacked hard at Turn 3 on lap five.

Having braked very late for the uphill right-hander, Norris and Verstappen went deep, which allowed Piastri to get amongst the action through the following DRS zone heading back down the hill to Turn 4.

There, Norris left enough space on the inside for Verstappen to hit back immediately and retake the lead despite locking up his right front, which sent Norris slightly wide and created a gap that Piastri surged into to take second from his teammate.

The battle at the front allowed the chasing pack to close in, with Russell fighting his way past Sainz to retake fourth with a DRS-assisted run around the outside at Turn 4 on lap eight – just as Verstappen was starting to pull away from the McLarens.

The triple champion finally dropped DRS to Piastri on lap ten and from there he simply eased away to take his second third sprint win of the 2024 season.

Norris, having fallen to nearly two seconds behind Piastri while Verstappen was steadily increasing his lead, closed back in on the lead McLaren and regularly got close using DRS.

But Piastri held on to finish second 4.6 seconds behind Verstappen and 0.7 seconds in front of Norris.

Russell dropped back from the McLaren pair over the race’s second half to finish three seconds behind Norris in fourth, with other gaps spreading out between the rest of the leading pack too.

Sainz was a bit back from Russell by the end and had to hold off the close attentions of Hamilton, while Charles Leclerc was 2.2 seconds behind the Mercedes in seventh and 3.9 seconds behind Sergio Perez, who completed the points positions in the other Red Bull, 17.4 seconds adrift of the winning one.

Leclerc’s sprint race was transformed with a brilliant opening lap when he climbed from his starting spot in 10th to run seventh almost immediately, while behind there was interest as Esteban Ocon held off Pierre Gasly to win an intra-Alpine scrap over P11.

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg faces a post-race investigation for appearing to force Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso off the track at Turn 3 with a late, locked-up dive. The pair ended up P14 and P16, split by RB driver Daniel Ricciardo.

So an eventful sprint race with Max Verstappen resisting the challenge from the McLarens. Still not a fan of this gimmick from Liberty Media as this ‘race’ is just the first stint of the main Grand Prix and yet it is encouraging to see the race pace of the McLarens. Hopefully the Austrian Grand Prix will be exciting.

Austrian Grand Prix, sprint results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 26:41.389
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren +4.616
3 Lando Norris McLaren +5.348
4 George Russell Mercedes +8.354
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +9.989
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +11.207
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +13.424
8 Sergio Perez Red Bull +17.409
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas +24.067
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +30.175
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine +30.839
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine +31.308
13 Yuki Tsunoda RB +35.452
14 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +38.423
15 Daniel Ricciardo RB +39.397
16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +43.155
17 Logan Sargeant Williams +44.076
18 Alex Albon Williams +44.673
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +46.511
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +53.143

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen beat the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to take pole position for the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring.

After the SQ3 drivers had waited for almost all the final qualifying segment to pass by before heading out on new soft tyres, the Mercedes duo led the pack out of the pits.

Lewis Hamilton posted a lap time of one minute, 05.270 seconds before he was immediately beaten by his teammate George Russell and then Piastri came through to shuffle them down.

Norris produced the fastest time in the middle sector to go ahead on a time with one minute, 04.779 seconds, but Verstappen’s leading pace in the first and final sector made the difference as he came through to top the session with a time of one minute, 04.686s seconds

Behind, Carlos Sainz slotted his Ferrari between the Mercedes drivers to take fifth position, with Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly ending up seventh, eighth and ninth and appearing to pay the price for being at the back of the traffic queue on the SQ3 out-lap.

Charles Leclerc ended up in tenth position without setting an SQ3 lap after he had pulled over from between the Alpines in the pitlane with an apparent technical issue.

The Ferrari driver fixed this and headed out, but did not cross the line in time to start a flying lap.

In SQ2, Kevin Magnussen produced the best first sector of this segment but lost time as his single run continued and he ended up in P11 – ahead of Aston Martin pair Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, plus Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant.

Stroll saved a massive moment at Turn 10 on his only attempt in SQ2, with those eliminated, plus the Alpine pair, having to complete an extra run on the mediums compared to the frontrunners getting out of SQ1.

In that, Hamilton had a nervy ride through after losing his first lap for going wide and dipping his right-side wheels in the gravel at Turn 6, then had a traffic-heavy second attempt before he progressed in P13 behind Alonso.

Logan Sargeant led Alex Albon from the off for the Williams and the former’s final improvement knocked Daniel Ricciardo out in P16 ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Albon and Zhou Guanyu.

In the closing seconds of the opening session where the drivers are only allowed to run the medium tyres throughout, as those that made it also were in SQ2, Tsunoda spun off dramatically at the final two corners but was able to carry on without damage.

Austrian Grand Prix, sprint qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:04.686
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:04.779
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:04.987
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:05.054
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:05.126
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:05.270
7 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:06.008
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:06.101
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:06.624
10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari No time
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:05.806
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:05.847
13 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:05.878
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:05.960
15 Logan Sargeant Williams No time
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:06.581
17 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:06.583
18 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:06.725
19 Alexander Albon Williams 1:06.754
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:07.197

Max Verstappen achieved his seventh victory of the 2024 season at the Spanish Grand Prix. The current championship leader finished ahead of Lando Norris while Lewis Hamilton is back on the podium.

The Red Bull driver stayed clear of a late-race charge from Norris to take victory at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, having got ahead of the polesitter into Turn 1.

Verstappen held the inside line for the opening corner to take position from Norris, although George Russell snatched the lead from both, but the Red Bull driver easily cleared the Mercedes on the third lap thanks to DRS as Russell proved unable to clear off into the distance.

Despite coming under threat in a tactical race, with Verstappen’s gap to Norris rising and falling as McLaren pitted later on, the defending champion resisted the pressure to extend his championship lead.

“I think what made the race was the beginning; when I took the lead and then had to drive quite a defensive race, especially on deg,” Verstappen said. “I think we did everything well, we did quite an aggressive strategy which paid off at the end.

“I had to do a bit of rallying on the straight, got on the grass which lost me momentum. I got ahead of Lando at Turn 1 and wanted to get into the lead so i could look after my tyres a bit.

“It’s just managing the tyres, they get very hot around here with the high-speed corners. it was a management race throughout.”

With all focus on the start between Norris and Verstappen on the front row, it was Russell who claimed the best start from fourth on the grid. The Mercedes driver dived left to take the racing line into the corner while the cars ahead battle for the inside line.

This handed Russell the momentum to go around the outside of them both and into the lead.

Once Verstappen got by, McLaren stayed in the fight after creating a tyre off-set for Norris; the championship leader pitted at the end of lap 17 to trade his softs for mediums, but Norris decided to remain on track for another six laps to ensure his mediums were six laps younger.

The gap between the two sat at about ten seconds following the stops, but Norris began to extend out the gap – although the reducing margins faded as Norris had to clear the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and the Mercedes duo.

Their delta reduced to five seconds before Verstappen pitted again at the end of lap 44, taking another set of softs to the end, and McLaren chose to pursue just a three-lap offset next time around to give Norris enough to push with to the end.

Although the gap between them went up, Norris spent the rest of the race closing Verstappen down – although time eventually ran out and the difference between them at the flag stood at 2.2 seconds.

Lewis Hamilton claimed his first podium position of the season after passing Russell with 15 laps to the flag, as the Mercedes duo are running different on strategy; Russell’s initial two stints were shorter and thus needed the hard tyre to go to the end, which George felt was not a particularly strong race tyre.

Hamilton’s stints were longer, and thus he could collect the soft tyre and benefit from a quicker pace at the end to overcome his teammate.

Russell finished fourth, despite under pressure from Charles Leclerc – who also took the soft tyre at the end in a bid to make progress. This put Leclerc over Sainz, who in turn finished clear of Oscar Piastri.

Sergio Perez finished in eighth with a three-stop strategy from P11 on the grid, while the Alpines completed the top ten in a vital boost to their constructors’ championship efforts – Pierre Gasly ninth and clear of teammate Esteban Ocon.

It was inevitable that Max Verstappen would win this race despite the qualifying highlight for Lando Norris taking his second career pole. A slow start for the McLaren driver was costly and yet the race pace plus strategy helped the triple champion to win in Spain.

Spanish Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:28:20.227
2 Lando Norris McLaren +2.219s
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +17.790s
4 George Russell Mercedes +22.320s
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +22.709s
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +31.028s
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren +33.760s
8 Sergio Perez Red Bull +59.524s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +62.025s
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine +71.889s
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +79.215s
12 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1 lap
13 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
15 Daniel Ricciardo RB +1 lap
16 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
18 Alexander Albon Williams M +1 lap
19 Yuki Tsunoda RB +1 lap
20 Logan Sargeant Williams +2 laps

Lando Norris snatched pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix from championship leader Max Verstappen by a tiny margin of 0.02 seconds on his final Q3 run to take his second career pole.

Verstappen looked set for his eighth pole of the 2024 season after setting a time of one minute, 11.673 seconds on his first flying lap to make a statement and following that upped the pace with a time of one minute, 11.403 seconds on his last effort thanks to a slipstream from teammate Sergio Perez.

His first effort had already proved unbeatable for the respective Ferrari and Mercedes duos, as qualifying was very competitive, and yet Norris delivered at the final moment to beat Verstappen.

“It was pretty much a perfect lap. It was so close, still, but I’m super happy. One of my best pole positions, not that I’ve had many! But it was just about getting a perfect lap, and that’s what we did,” said Norris.

“We’ve been quick the last two months, since Miami we’ve been strong. We’ve probably missed out on pole just by not having the perfect lap, but we did it today.

“[Winning] is our target, but it’s going to be tough against Max, against Lewis. But we’re here to win now.”

The Silver Arrows locked out the second row, as Lewis Hamilton outqualified George Russell by just 0.002 seconds to claim third position, displacing the Ferraris.

Charles Leclerc was fifth-fastest by 0.005 seconds over Carlos Sainz, while Pierre Gasly took a surprise seventh on the grid in a weekend Alpine expected to struggle.

Perez took eighth, which becomes P11 with the application of a grid penalty collected in Montreal, as Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri completed the top ten.

The McLaren driver was stranded in P10 as he was unable to set a time in Q3, aborting his only lap after understeering out of Turn 13 and clipping the gravel on the exit.

Fernando Alonso could not break into Q3 at his home race, despite improving on his final lap. The double world champion was initially P14 before he crossed the line, but this only lifted him up to P11.

Alonso thus starts Sunday’s race against Valtteri Bottas, who was P12 for Sauber.

Nico Hulkenberg also fell into the bottom five late on in Q2, joining Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu as the remainder of the drivers who failed to progress into the top ten shootout.

Kevin Magnussen was pushed into the drop zone at the end of Q1 by teammate Hulkenberg, as the Haas driver improved late on into the session to break into the next phase of qualifying.

Magnussen had managed to get free of the bottom five on his own final flying lap, but a series of late improvements ensured that he started to tumble down the order once more. In the end it became P16.

The RBs of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo were both knocked out despite a series of new upgrades to the car, becoming victims of a tightly compressed field as they fell under a second shy of Hamilton’s Q1 benchmark.

Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant locked out the back row of the grid for Williams, as Albon attempted to run off-peak with his second Q1 effort and got up to P12, but dropped back as others improved.

So a very close contest in qualifying with Lando Norris coming out on top for McLaren. This is his second career pole following on from Russia in 2021. It will be interesting if Lando can go for his second victory on race day.

Spanish Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:11.383
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:11.403
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.701
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.703
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:11.731
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:11.736
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:11.857
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:12.125
9 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:12.011
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:12.128
11 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:12.061*
12 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:12.227
13 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:12.310
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:12.372
15 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:12.738
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:12.937
17 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:12.985
18 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:13.075
19 Alexander Albon Williams 1:13.153
20 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:13.509
*Three-place grid penalty for dropping debris around the track at Montreal

Championship leader Max Verstappen came through the wet/dry conditions to win the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver retained position over polesitter George Russell during their pitstops for intermediate tyres, following a safety car by Logan Sargeant, and then-leader Lando Norris was compelled to stop a lap later having passed the pit entry when the safety car was called.

“Yeah, it was a pretty crazy race and we had to be on top of our calls,” Verstappen said. “We remained calm, pitted at the right time, and the safety car worked well for us. After that we were managing the gaps.

“[McLaren and Mercedes fought us] in different stages as well, so it was a lot of fun out there.”

Norris filtered out in third and was forced to stick with the cars ahead, waiting for a drying line to form to reprise his pace from the opening stint that had allowed him to take the lead from Russell.

When the drying line emerged, the leading duo decided to pit together on lap 45, but Norris attempted to extend his time gap by staying out by going two laps longer.

This helped him ahead of Russell and, briefly, Verstappen – but the McLaren driver suffered a snap of oversteer when coming out of the pits to allow Verstappen to take his lead.

The triple champion had to endure a second safety car when Carlos Sainz slipped off track and put Alex Albon into the wall, but he overcame the restart perfectly and never came under threat from Norris thereafter.

Verstappen had not been able to pass Russell at the start, and initially fell beyond two seconds behind the Mercedes driver, but started to catch back up.

But Norris then started to lap much faster than the leading pair, and closed down Verstappen to start his challenge towards the lead as the circuit started to produce a drying line.

The McLaren driver was determined that Verstappen was closing in on DRS range of Russell, and thus took a lap out of cooling his tyres on the wet patches to put a move on the Red Bull along the back straight at the close of lap 20.

He put the same move on Russell at the end of the next lap, and the Mercedes driver subsequently went off at Turn 14 to allow Verstappen to trickle past.

Norris started to forge an impressive lead over the Red Bull driver at a rate of over two seconds per lap but, as he was approaching a 10-second lead, his progress was halted by a safety car as Logan Sargeant dropped his car into the wall on the exit of Turn 5.

The timing of the safety car, unlike Lando’s Miami Grand Prix win, was not in his favour; Verstappen could take a pitstop for fresh intermediates with a threat of further rain emerging, followed by Russell and Oscar Piastri, and Norris had to wait until the following lap to make a stop.

Norris lost out and cycled out in third, behind Verstappen and Russell, and remained locked behind them as the rain began to fall once again, despite staying in touch. Verstappen extended a lead beyond the three-second mark, as the trio waited for the rain to subside.

Once the period of precipitation had ended, it had become clear by the lap 42 that the intermediate-to-dry crossover was emerging as Pierre Gasly was lapping at the leaders’ pace on hard tyres.

Both Verstappen and Russell stopped at the end of lap 45, taking on the medium and hard respectively, but Norris was confident in his pace and was still setting personal bests, and thus took another two laps on the intermediate in a bid to undercut both.

It worked, for a time, and he emerged from the pits on mediums ahead of Verstappen for a handful of seconds – but with minimal grip coming out of the pitlane, his McLaren wagged its tail and allowed Verstappen to pick up the lead.

Russell won out in his late-race battle with Hamilton to secure the team’s first podium of the season, although Hamilton clinched the fastest lap at the end of the race.

The pair cleared Oscar Piastri to ensure they could battle for the final podium place, leaving the McLaren driver to a lonely final few laps as Fernando Alonso was over seven seconds behind in sixth.

Lance Stroll claimed seventh, while Daniel Ricciardo withstood big pressure from the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon to finish in eighth – his first finish in the points this season for RB.

So a wild race in Montreal and yet it was inevitable that Max Verstappen comes through to win. The wet/dry conditions made the racing entertaining and it is encouraging that Mercedes have good performance. More competition is good for the sport.

Canadian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:45:47.927
2 Lando Norris McLaren +3.879s
3 George Russell Mercedes +4.317s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +4.915s
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +10.199s
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +17.510s
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +23.625s
8 Daniel Ricciardo RB +28.672s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +30.021s
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine +30.313s
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +30.824s
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas +31.253s
13 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +40.487s
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB +52.694s
15 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 69 +1 lap
Carlos Sainz Ferrari DNF
Alexander Albon Williams DNF
Sergio Perez Red Bull DNF
Charles Leclerc Ferrari DNF
Logan Sargeant Williams DNF

George Russell achieved his second Formula 1 pole position in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, setting an identical time to triple champion Max Verstappen.

The Mercedes driver set his best lap of Q3 in the opening runs, posting an one minute, 12.000 seconds to lay down a benchmark for the final runs at the end of the session. He was joined in the top two by his teammate Lewis Hamilton after those opening laps, but fresh tyres at the end of the segment looked set to change the form.

Verstappen used them to set a rapid opening sector, but could not match Russell’s second sector and crossed the finishing line to set exactly the same time as the Mercedes driver – another one minute, 12.000 seconds – but was second thanks to the order their laps were set in.

“It feels so good, so much hard work gone on back at the factory. We said in Monaco we hoped this was the start of the season,” Russell said. “It’s awesome when we come to Montreal. First bit done, but now we’ve got to fight for that win.”

“Let’s go for it. Since we brought some upgrades to Monaco we’ve really been in that fight so we’re going for it tomorrow.”

Lando Norris beat McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to third place, having been just 0.021 seconds off Russell and Verstappen’s laps, while Daniel Ricciardo responded to criticism over his performances in 2024 by placing his RB in fifth position, ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton could not improve in his final lap and thus had to be content with seventh, and will start alongside RB’s Yuki Tsunoda. Lance Stroll and Alex Albon completed the top ten, as both impressed in qualifying form.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were both surprise eliminations from Q2 as neither Ferrari driver could tap into the demands of the Montreal circuit – Sainz stating that he had no grip and Leclerc aborting his final lap after unable to improve.

Both drivers attempted to stay in the top ten with the same used soft tyres pressed into service at the end of Q1, but these were long past their best and this was Ferrari’s way to an early exit.

Logan Sargeant qualified P13, having initially held his own among the top ten throughout the session, but felt that he was impeded. Nonetheless, he was a scant 0.008 seconds shy of Sainz’s lap to earn praise from Williams team principal James Vowles over the radio. Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly were the other drivers who were knocked out in Q2.

Sergio Perez was dropped out in Q1 for the second consecutive race, losing his precarious grasp on progressing to Q2 when Albon rocketed out of the drop zone in the final moments of the session.

The Red Bull driver had spent much of the session in the bottom half of the field and sat in the drop zone with five minutes left; although he improved, he fell back into the bottom five once again, days after securing his new two-year contract.

Valtteri Bottas also fell into the drop zone having been unable to improve sufficiently in his final run, just under a tenth from safety, while Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, and Zhou Guanyu also dropped out at the first segment.

So an exciting qualifying session at Montreal. It’s refreshing to see Mercedes have genuine pace and to see George Russell taking pole is a welcome sight. Let’s see if he can hold off the championship leader in the race.

Canadian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:12.000
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:12.000
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:12.021
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:12.103
5 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:12.178
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:12.228
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:12.280
8 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:12.414
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:12.701
10 Alexander Albon Williams 1:12.796
11 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:12.691
12 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:12.728
13 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:12.736
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:12.916
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:12.940
16 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:13.326
17 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:13.366
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:13.435
19 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:13.978
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:14.292