Key events
Antonelli four tenths off the pace, Russell pits. Brundle wonders if he touched a wall.
Hamilton splits the McLarens, Leclerc manages fourth.
Max Verstappen goes faster than Hadjar, then Norris pips Piastri.
Sadly, Pierre Gasly hit a marmot in Q1 which did more damage than first thought, leading to his Q2 problems.
Off we go …
Just 0.003 between Antonelli and Russell in Q2.
Charles Leclerc sounds almost distraught at being eighth: “I’m completely off the pace. Q3 is either in the wall or P8. We just need to make sure, give me clean air. I don’t care about whatever else, just clean air. That’s all that matters.” Franco Colapinto sounds like he just won the playoff final having coming in 10th.
Q2 eliminations
And it finished with Hulkenberg, Lawson, Bortoleto, Gasly, Sainz and Bearman in the drop zone. Antonelli opted not to go flying again, safely through.
Russell up to fifth, just behind Antonelli, who will have the final say in Q2.
Hadjar fastest, into the 1:12s! Less than two tenths across the top five.
Hamilton flying and fastest, Leclerc struggling.
Hulkenberg, Sainz, Lawson, Bortoleto, Gasly and Bearman in the drop zone.
Russell makes a mess at turn one, goes straight across. Not much time to improve on eighth. Will he need to?
Leclerc has more problems, slow to reach the pits. Will he have time for a warm-up lap?
Leclerc down in 11th. Still more than six minutes to go, but his next lap only brings ninth.
Hadjar once again shows he’s a proper Red Bull driver, briefly going second before Norris pips him.
Antonelli appreciably faster than Russell. The Italian is channelling his anger/heeding Wolff’s advice and goes fastest.
Hamilton – six times a pole-sitter here, at the scene of his first GP win – goes second fastest.
Norris in the low 1:13s, Piastri just behind.
Everyone seeking to get those temperatures up. Weaving? If they were spotted driving like this when these roads are just streets and not a circuit, then the Mounties would not bother with a breathalyser.
Q2 is go.
Hamilton faces an investigation over his blocking of Gasly.
Q1 eliminations
And that is that for Q1, with Ocon, Albon, Alonso, Perez, Stroll and Bottas eliminated.
Alonso can only manage 18th, unable to repeat his advance to SQ2.
Antonelli in first and Russell in eighth among those to put their feet up.
Bearman’s car has lost something on the front left of the car. Will need a quick patch-up but he is safely into Q2, it appears.
But Gasly, who had been blocked by Hamilton on previous runs, dumps Ocon into 16th.
Bortoleto, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Stroll and Gasly in the drop zone.
Bearman on the radio: “Oh, a piece of my car has come off.”
Leclerc has a time now, up to ninth fastest, avoiding any late stress – assuming he has no more deletions.
The track is getting faster and faster. Lindblad now up to third, not somewhere he should be close to when all is said and done.
Isack Hadjar showing he’s a sound choice by Red Bull again, splitting the Mercedes.
Leclerc had a lock-up and went through a chicane.
And then Russell beats the Red Bull by a quarter, then Antonelli goes half a second faster still.
Verstappen, Norris, Piastri all go faster than the Mercedes pair.
Russell says the ride is a lot rougher than yesterday. Leclerc bottom after having his first time deleted.
Russell goes second briefly then Antonelli beats him by 0.015sec. Early days and only Q1.
Verstappen into the 1:14s, and so is Norris.
Piastri in the 1:15s. It’s 10C cooler than yesterday so it will be hard to get heat in the tyres, Brundle reminds us.
Unsafe release in the pitlane, a wonky wheel rim for Alonso.
Russell the first of the major players out, followed at a safe distance by Antonelli.
Q1 under way
Green light … and the lower field head out on to the track.
21C and cloudy in Quebec.
We are five minutes away from Q1.
Lewis Hamilton, despite tyre degradation contributing to his slip from fourth to sixth late in the sprint, seems to have been happy with his setup, so all the work at Ferrari is on Charles Leclerc’s car.
Ted Kravitz is in the pitlane, looking at what the teams are up to. Red Bull have caught his eye by looking to add downforce for the wet tomorrow; conceding they can’t compete in qualifying in the dry but there are advantages to be had playing a longer game.
Rival teams – not least McLaren, who had their only internecine strife last year between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – will be looking to capitalise. Ferrari, who are so fast off the grid, will be anxious at least to break into 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 to the front row by right.
Wolff was pleased with Mercedes’ starts, Russell’s especially, and blamed the car not Antonelli for his being slightly slower. But still …
Back in the day, David James caught more crosses than any other Premier League goalkeeper – because more were fired in, as opposing teams knew that sooner or later he would drop one. One successful pair of starts does not stop a vulnerability being perceived.
It was a difficult incident to cover during the sprint because the TV director failed to show anything immediately and belatedly some unhelpful on-board footage, not screening the best views until after the race had finished. We all heard Antonelli’s complaints, though, which while he went too far did him a disservice.
To me the key points are that Russell could not simply disappear, and that the stewards did not get involved, as they could have done even though the pair are from the same team.
Wolff is chatting to Sky. He is “100% sure he will look like a fool at some points this year” after discussing the rules of engagement, or “racing intent” as they prefer to say.
If you were a multimillionaire team principal, what would you have said in the past couple of hours? The most important point, I guess, is that Wolff would have told Antonelli to focus on what is in front of him, ie qualifying. Mercedes will be after another front-row lockout now and anything 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 got their breath back? Has everyone cooled down? The first sprint race in Montreal seems likely to feature in reviews of the season after George Russell and Kimi Antonelli almost came to grief and the latter reacted furiously, forcing Toto Wolff on to the team radio to tell the teenager to calm down. Three hours later, they will be back at it, albeit not wheel to wheel as the team send forth their drivers spaced out.
(For a moment I pondered the drug connations of “spaced out”, then let it go, then returned to the quotes, and there’s Antonelli saying Russell had been “very naughty”. God I hated the Shamen’s hymn to MDMA, Ebeneezer Goode, but that “naughty, naughty, very naughty” opening line has stuck around.)
Reuters reports that Russell said he needed to check the video but from what he felt at the time:
“From my side, I didn’t think I did anything wrong and it wasn’t investigated. I guess race directors and stewards thought the same.
“You never get overtaken around the outside of that corner,” he added, saying that Antonelli’s drive was risky. “Kudos to Kimi for giving it a go … I respect that.
“You race each other hard, but fair, and from my side, there’s never ill intentions towards anything. But on the same note, I’m not just going to wave somebody by. And we’re both fighting for our championship.”
Of Antonelli, Reuters said:
He added the team would clarify the situation after reviewing the race. “The main thing for the team is that there was no contact, that we don’t crash into each other.”
We will see what Mercedes say 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’s view on Russell and Antonelli:
They had the race in their hands after both made a good start from the front row and Russell closed out well despite pressure from Norris, but the debrief at Mercedes will likely still be a feisty affair.
Still, the win was the strong start to the weekend Russell was looking for. He won the opening race of the season in Australia and the first sprint of the season at the Chinese Grand Prix, but with Antonelli winning the past three races, the young Italian had taken a strong lead in the world championship. Russell needed to reassert himself and did so in the first real test.
Read his full report:
