F1 Qualifying Results: McLaren have qualifying disaster as Mercedes and Red Bull lock out top row

McLaren had their worst qualifying session of the year at the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday, failing to put either of their cars on the front row as Lando Norris could only go seventh fastest.

George Russell stormed back at the end of the session to take a shocking pole position when it looked as though Max Verstappen had it locked up, knocking Oscar Piastri down to third.

Lewis Hamilton's resurgent weekend continued with his joint-best qualifying result of the season, while lower down the field Yuki Tsunoda's Q2 exit combined with his ten-place grid penalty mean that he'll start plumb last on the grid.

Carlos Sainz and home star Lance Stroll were both knocked out in that first period, the first being heavily impeded by Isack Hadjar on his final flying lap, which will almost certainly see the Racing Bulls star demoted three places.

Q1 was red flagged with five and a half minutes remaining when the engine cover of Alex Albon's car blew off down the straight approaching the end of the lap, leaving debris all over the track.

That was one of the more bizarre red flag incidents in recent years, and left Williams mechanics scrambling to fix his car in a successful attempt to get him back out on the track and through to Q2.

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F1 Qualifying Results: Canadian Grand Prix 2025

How does F1 Qualifying work?

The qualifying session is split into three finite windows, which provide a dramatic prelude to Sunday's race.

The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of Q1, with a further five eliminated after Q2.

Then, Q3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.

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