Russell admits ‘epic’ Canada pole position lap ‘came from nowhere’ as he explains Qualifying struggles

George Russell was delighted with an “epic” effort in Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix that saw him clinch pole position on his last attempt, with the Briton conceding that his lap “came from nowhere” following some struggles during the session.

After aborting his first effort during Q3, Russell found himself out of sync and lingering towards the rear of the top 10 ahead of the final runs. However, a stunning last tour saw the Mercedes driver surge to the top on a 1m 12.578s, putting him just 0.068s clear of team mate Kimi Antonelli.

Russell – who had won a thrilling Sprint just hours earlier – explained the difficulties he had faced in Qualifying as he reflected back on the session after jumping out of the car, explaining: “It’s always challenging coming back from the Sprint race – the car feels very different, you’re obviously into the Qualifying format.

“We made some changes as a team, we need to review after if that was the right direction. Then obviously that last lap came from nowhere, and it was just a great feeling when it was such a challenging session.

“To put it all together on that last lap to throw yourself up the leaderboard was epic.”

Pushed on the exact nature of the challenges he faced, Russell admitted that the alterations made prior to Qualifying had been influenced by the weather forecast for Sunday’s race, for which there is a possibility of rain.

“We made some changes based on the forecast for tomorrow – it may have hurt us a little bit for now,” the 28-year-old detailed. “It just took the car out of sync a little bit.

“Kimi was definitely more competitive than I in that session, but we weren’t as clear ahead of everybody else like we were yesterday so it was definitely a challenge. But as I said, just managed to redial my driving for that last lap and put it together.”

Russell and Antonelli engaged in a tense battle during Saturday’s Sprint in Montreal, with the pair making contact as Antonelli attempted to fight for the lead.

In terms of whether there could be a repeat of this come Sunday, Russell said: “No, we’ve had a good chat since this morning. We’re both racing drivers, we both know what to do, we both respect one another, so we’ll go racing.

“We hope it’s just battling the two of us, but we saw today how competitive everybody else is. Tomorrow looks to be wet – that’s going to be a whole new challenge as well, so to be honest so it’s not really what we’re thinking right now. We just want to ensure that we can be standing on the top step.”