It is advantage George Russell in Montreal as he built on his victory in the sprint to pull pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix out of the fire.

He had wobbled and struggled throughout the qualifying session - an unexpected twist of fate given the dominance of Mercedes all weekend - but at the death he roared through and supplanted his teammate Kimi Antonelli, pushing him to second on the grid for Sunday’s rain-threatened race.

Just 0.068sec separated the pair, which was exactly the same margin by which Russell pipped the Italian in sprint qualifying on Friday.

It was Russell’s third successive pole at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a track he rates as a favourite and where he hopes to narrow his deficit to championship leader Antonelli from 18 points. 

The Briton won here last year and is confident of doing so again - if the weather

Lando Norris was third quickest in an improving McLaren with his team-mate Oscar Piastri fourth best and Lewis Hamilton fifth for Ferrari.

‘The last lap came from nowhere,’ said Russell over the radio. ‘It is the most exhilarating feeling to come from nowhere to take pole.

‘We made some changes to the car in light of the expected rain coming tomorrow. It put us out of sync. It was a challenge, but I managed to redial my driving on the final lap.

‘It is never easy to go to qualifying after the sprint, a change of requirement. But this is such a special feeling. It just came together.

Russell was lying fifth and complaining about his lack of rear end, when he set off for his final tilt, which was faultless and capped his day of revival after three win-free races that have gone Antonelli’s way.