F1 Qualifying Results: George Russell and Kimi Antonelli complete extraordinary feat at Canadian Grand Prix

Russell after taking sprint pole in Canada — Photo: © IMAGO

Formula 1

F1 Qualifying Results: George Russell and Kimi Antonelli complete extraordinary feat at Canadian Grand Prix

All the times from Canadian Grand Prix qualifying

Originally written by Chris Deeley. This version is a translation.

Saturday 23 May 2026 22:18

George Russell and Kimi Antonelli pulled off an extraordinary feat in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday, perfectly replicating their result and time gap from sprint qualifying 24 hours before.

The Brit struggled early in the session, but roared back to take pole by 0.068 seconds over his team-mate – just as he had one day previous.

The second row will be filled by the papaya cars of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri (in that order), with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen sharing the third row.

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Meanwhile, things went back to normal at the bottom of the field on Saturday, with both Cadillacs and Aston Martins knocked out at the first time of asking after Fernando Alonso snuck into SQ2 on Friday.

In fact, the two embattled teams will share the last two rows on the grid, with Alonso and Lance Stroll 19th and 21st. Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas will start 20th and 22nd respectively.

F1 Qualifying Results: Canadian Grand Prix 2026

F1 Canadian Grand Prix Qualifying Results
Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	George Russell	Mercedes	1:12.578s
2	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+0.068s
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	+0.151s
4	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+0.203s
5	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+0.290s
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+0.329s
7	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull	+0.357s
8	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+0.398s
9	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+0.702s
10	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+1.119s
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	ELIMINATED IN Q2
12	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	ELIMINATED IN Q2
13	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	ELIMINATED IN Q2
14	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	ELIMINATED IN Q2
15	Carlos Sainz	Williams	ELIMINATED IN Q2
16	Ollie Bearman	Haas	ELIMINATED IN Q2
17	Esteban Ocon	Haas	ELIMINATED IN Q1
18	Alex Albon	Williams	ELIMINATED IN Q1
19	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	ELIMINATED IN Q1
20	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	ELIMINATED IN Q1
21	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	ELIMINATED IN Q1
22	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	ELIMINATED IN Q1

Changes to F1 Qualifying in 2026

There are a couple of changes to the way qualifying works this year, not quite as sweeping as the new technical regulations.

Firstly we now have 22 cars on the grid, so instead of 5 cars exiting after Q1 and Q2, we will have 6 being eliminated. That still leaves 10 for the pole shootout in Q3.

The other notable change is in the timings - Q3 now gets an extra minute and lasts for 13 rather than 12.

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