George Russell was the fastest in the sprint qualifying before the 2026 Canadian GP. In the final segment, drivers from the top four teams lined up in pairs in the results table, and the differences between them were relatively small.
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Friday’s sprint qualifying was held in very stable weather conditions, with the track temperature at 40 degrees Celsius. The sprint qualifying was extended by nearly 20 minutes because Fernando Alonso crashed in SQ1, and the safety barrier needed repairs.
Results of the sprint qualifying before the 2026 Canadian GP
20 drivers participated in the qualifying, as the teams did not manage to prepare the cars of Liam Lawson and Alex Albon, who had crashes in practice that required major changes to the cars.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | SQ1 | SQ2 | SQ3 |
| 1. | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:14.772 | 1:13.026 | 1:12.965 |
| 2. | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1:14.010 | 1:13.551 | 1:13.033 |
| 3. | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:14.265 | 1:13.957 | 1:13.280 |
| 4. | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1:14.665 | 1:13.858 | 1:13.299 |
| 5. | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 1:13.889 | 1:13.465 | 1:13.326 |
| 6. | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:15.006 | 1:13.554 | 1:13.410 |
| 7. | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:14.028 | 1:14.412 | 1:13.504 |
| 8. | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | 1:14.541 | 1:14.239 | 1:13.605 |
| 9. | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 1:14.517 | 1:14.140 | 1:13.737 |
| 10. | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 1:15.500 | 1:14.547 | 1:14.536 |
| 11. | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | 1:15.673 | 1:14.595 | |
| 12. | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | 1:15.801 | 1:14.627 | |
| 13. | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 1:15.484 | 1:14.702 | |
| 14. | Esteban Ocon | Haas | 1:15.760 | 1:14.928 | |
| 15. | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 1:15.872 | 1:15.197 | |
| 16. | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1:15.760 | —- | |
| 17. | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | 1:16.002 | ||
| 18. | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:16.354 | ||
| 19. | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1:16.642 | ||
| 20. | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | 1:16.866 |
Discussion of the sprint qualifying before the 2026 Canadian GP
Considering the brought upgrades, track layout, and historical results, Mercedes is the clear favorite this weekend and did not disappoint during the sprint qualifying. George Russell was the fastest, and Kimi Antonelli lost less than 0.1 seconds to him. This is an important result for Russell, as he usually lost to Antonelli recently, and the British driver usually performs well in Canada. Personally, I expected an even bigger advantage for Mercedes, but in SQ3 there were problems with warming up the tires; it seems no one from the front really managed a very good lap.
McLaren drivers, largely unnoticed, will take places in the second row on the sprint start. McLaren is not using the full set of upgrades brought to Canada; after practice, they gave up the front wing. They may return to it after the sprint. Both drivers performed very well in SQ3, probably making the best use of the soft tires among the front runners, hence the top positions. The first two segments on intermediate tires did not predict such a good result.
Lewis Hamilton should be third, and in my opinion, he could even be second, but he lost a lot of time on his final lap due to a slide in the hairpin. Hamilton drove really excellently throughout qualifying, improving lap by lap and pushing hard. On the final lap, he set the record for the first sector, but due to a mistake in the third sector, he lost about 0.25 seconds compared to his previous run. A clean lap would have guaranteed him third place and put him right next to Antonelli. For this reason, Mercedes’ advantage in pure pace was not that big. Hamilton was only fifth, and Leclerc sixth. The driver from Monaco usually has weaker results in Canada; he does not like this track.
Red Bull disappointed me because there was a lot of potential visible in the first segment, but some problems appeared in the next two. Verstappen and Hadjar will start from the fourth row. They were close to each other, mainly because Verstappen did not drive as fast as expected earlier. There must have been some problems, which, knowing them, they will eliminate before the main qualifying.
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Arvid Lindblad also advanced to SQ3, deserving considerable praise as he was very close to the Red Bull drivers in the final segment. This is definitely a result above expectations for the young driver.
The only driver who set an optimal lap in SQ3, i.e., three personal sector records, was Oscar Piastri. The rest did not manage this, usually losing only a little to the optimal time, but some lost more than 0.2 seconds.
Among the other places, three things are worth noting. Carlos Sainz advanced to SQ3, the first such advancement for the Williams team to the final qualifying segment this year. Sainz confirmed Williams’ growing form, visible since Miami. Fernando Alonso crashed in qualifying but advanced to SQ2, the first such advancement for Aston Martin this year. Alonso had really good pace, especially in the first sector. It seems they are showing their full potential this weekend, the engine has full power, etc. This was also indicated by Honda’s announcements. The gap to the front is huge, but they are able to fight at the back of the field. Sergio Perez is also worth praising, who had a very good time, showing Cadillac’s improvement.
Summary and predictions for the sprint
On Saturday, we will have the first F1 sprint in Canada. Drivers should run on intermediate tires, possibly even used ones, as degradation is low here. In theory, some may risk soft tires. This weekend we had several crashes, and something can be expected to happen in the sprint. Then there may be reshuffles and pit stops for new tires. Mercedes is the favorite; they are supposed to have improved starts, so we will see if that really happens. The competition behind them looks interesting.
The summary of internal duels in sprint qualifying and the sprints themselves can be checked at this link. It also includes a table of points scored this year only in sprints.
