Explained: Forgotten F1 rule that gave pole to George Russell over Max Verstappen after both set the same time
Max Verstappen, George Russell, Lando Norris
Mercedes driver George Russell secured the pole position at the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday (Jun 8) despite Red Bull's Max Verstappen finishing Q3 with the same time. It was only the second instance in F1 history that two drivers could not be separated after finishing the session with identical timings upto three decimalpoints.
Russell was first out in the qualifyinglap and set a time of 1:12:000 which was matched by Verstappen who took to the circuit after him. The rules dictate that the driver who sets the best lap time first, gets the honour of starting the race at the top of the grid.
"If two or more drivers set identical times during Q1, Q2 or Q3 or SQ1, SQ2 or SQ3, priority will be given to the driver who set it first," reads thefourth paragraph of Article 39.4 of the FIA F1 Sporting Regulations.
The last time such an unlikely coincidence took place was in Jerez 1997 when Michael Schumacher, Jacques Villenuve and Heinz-Herald Fretzen finished qualifying with identical timings of 1:21.072.
At the time,Villeneuve secured the pole position and the next day went on to win the world championship after the well-known controversy with Schumacher.
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'First step done'
Speaking after locking the front row position, an elated Russell said:"Amazing. It feels so good. So much hard work at the factory has gone into this and 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. Excited for tomorrow. First step done, but now obviously we've got our eyes on that win."
As for Red Bull, advisor Helmut Marko revealed that it was perhaps not warming up the tyres sufficiently thatcost Verstappen the pole.
“I think we can be satisfied with this result, especially after the events in the second free practice.It was about how you warm up your tyres and I think the warm-up lap in Q3 was just too fast," said Marko.
The telemetry revealed that Russell was fast in straights and took the advantage in the third sector while Verstappen struggled on the kerbs.
1:12.178
(With inputs from agencies)