Montreal, June 9 : Canadian Grand Prix qualifying session was an exciting one with George Russell and Max Verstappen both finishing with the exact same time (1:12:00) and Lando Norris coming in third place, just 0.021s behind.

Despite the identical time, it will be the Mercedes of Russell that lines up at the front of the pack as he finished his lap before the Dutch racer.

Upon finishing on the pole for the first time since 2022 (Hungarian Gp), the Englishman expressed his joy at the result. "Oh, amazing. It feels so good, it feels so good! So much hard work back at the factory has gone into this. We said it in Monaco, we hope this is the start of something for our season, and I think it is. I've missed this feeling! It's awesome here. Every time we come to Montreal it's such good energy from all the fans. I'm excited for tomorrow. Obviously, the first step's done, but now we've got our eyes on that win,' said Russell in the post-race interview.

Mercedes will be hoping for a clean race start and hope that the new upgrades that they introduced at Monaco will keep Russell ahead of Verstappen's Red Bull as they aim to secure their first win of the season.

"Why not? Of course, let's go for it. I think the car's been feeling amazing. Since we brought some upgrades to Monaco, we've sort of really been in that fight now, so we're going for it tomorrow!' added the British pole sitter.

Hamilton's woes continued as the seven-time world champion finished seventh in qualifying and did not manage to keep up with the pace of his teammate.

"Ah, I just wasn't really quick in qualifying, I lost a ton of time. I reckon I lost half a second, probably going into qualifying. Just the grip wasn't there. I didn't make any changes to the car. All of a sudden the grip's not there," said a dejected Hamilton.

/IANS