F1 News: Russell and Verstappen tie for 2024 Canadian GP pole

Both George Russell and Max Verstappen set identical times of 1m12.000s in pole qualifying for the 2024 Canadian GP, with Russell getting pole because he set the time first.

-by Mark Cipolloni–

It was the 2nd career F1 pole for George Russell who once again beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton now 8 to 1 as old age catches up to Hamilton.

“Amazing, it feels so good. So much hard work back at the factory has gone into this. We hope this is the start of something for our season, we think it is. I missed this, it’s such a good feeling. Excited for tomorrow – we have our eyes on that win. Let’s go for it, the car has been feeling amazing since we brought those upgrades to Monaco.”

Verstappen carried the inferior Red Bull RB20 that saw his teammate Sergio Perez knocked out in Q1 in the identical car marking the second consecutive weekend where the Red Bull driver has failed to progress beyond the first segment of qualifying. Verstappen waits for RB20 upgrades to fix its shortcomings.

“I mean it is how it is right?! We still had a good qualifying, the whole weekend has been tricky for us so P2 – I’ll take it, I would have definitely taken that going into qualifying,” said Verstappen. “We didn’t have a great build up to today, but I think it will be an interesting race tomorrow. Hopefully, very exciting.”

Red Bull is hopeful for tomorrow’s race.

Helmut Marko: “We can be satisfied with this result, especially after what happened in FP2.”

“We have eliminated our weaknesses and I think we also have a good set-up for the race – even if it rains.”

“I hope that our tire wear in the race is little less and Max can read the race very well in the meantime. He knows when to attack and how fast he can go without overloading the tires. I hope we can compete at the front.”

The McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will start on row 2, 0.021s and 0.103s behind Russell and Verstappen respectively.

“I’m super happy,” said Norris. “First of all congrats to Mr Russell. I’m happy with third, when it’s so close you always think could I have found that bit more but I’m happy. Montreal is one of the best places to come to, that’s why I’m smiling. It’s so tricky, you think you’re going to crash half of it. Two overtakes to make tomorrow – easy, light work! We’ll put on a show tomorrow.”

Daniel Ricciardo was a sensational 5th for VCARB just 0.178s behind Russell and Verstappen and ahead of Fernando Alonso, while Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda share the fourth row ahead of Lance Stroll and Alex Albon.

Russell played second fiddle to Hamilton yesterday – but not today. Yes, he had a bit of a tow, but he still nailed that lap. And that was after a ‘holy moly’ moment earlier in qualifying where he came agonizingly close to binning it into the wall.

Russell has the not so small task of keeping Verstappen and Norris at bay off the line tomorrow, with Piastri also in the mix. But the other in-form cars are nowhere to be seen.

The Ferrari duo are starting down outside the top 10 after a tricky qualifying that neither driver seemed impressed with, so at least Russell won’t have to contend with them at the beginning anyway.

It was a tough day for Ferrari, with both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz failing to make it past Q2. The Scuderia pair will line up in P11 and P12 respectively, just two weeks after sharing the podium in Monaco.

Logan Sargeant enjoyed his best qualifying performance of the year by claiming 13th in the Williams, ahead of the Haas of Kevin Magnussen in 14th and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in 15th.

2024 Canadian GP Qualifying Results