Russell vs Antonelli | F1 Canada Qualifying lap 2026 Telemetry Analysis

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Welcome to Late Apex F1, your channel for telemetry and driver analysis. As we all saw this morning, he was really close between the Brit and the Young Italian, going for his fourth consecutive poll. But as we know, George is no rookie on this track, claiming the last two polls two seasons in a row and going for his third. The final standings, they're about half a tenth apart from each other, both gaining from different parts of the track. Antony was looking good for the first sector, but it kind of fell apart a little bit in the second sector and he tried to eek it back in the third, but to no avail as George managed to stick it on pole in the end. If you like this video, please subscribe, leave a comment, and hit that like button. Now, let's get into it.

[00:00:39]Just on this still right at the start of the lap, you can see Antonelli carrying more speed through the start finish line, most likely deploying more energy across the straight or picking up better traction from the wall of champions the turn before. Antonelli well and truly carries his speed going into turn one.

[00:00:56]This turns quite a tricky corner as we found out with Russell spinning out in free practice one by hitting the curb too hard and getting up too high on it.

[00:01:03]But being the Montreal master that Russell seems to be, he actually takes a quite a tight line going into one, breaking later than Antelli and carrying more minimum speed. And this is actually one of the best sequence of corners for Russell during his qualifying lap where he actually gains a tenth and a half between one and two. But on the exit of two, Russell goes a little bit wider than he would have liked. And that gives Antonelli better traction out of two.

[00:01:30]Going into three, we can see how Russell loses out here, losing 3/10 between two and three. While using slightly different lines for T3, T4, both drivers navigate it pretty much equally. Going into T6, we see Antony holds this advantage over Russell from that poor exit that Russell had at the exit of turn two. The next short sequence is where Antonelli erodess at his benefit that he just had out of turn two earlier. Russell takes a more inside line going into T6, which is actually the preferred line by most drivers. If you look at the purple line, you can see Anthony's car gets walked out a little bit going into T7. And this pinches him a little bit on the exit. And this is actually quite a intense exit for most drivers. And we did see Vestappen and Hamilton get on the grass quite a bit as they were exiting out of turn seven and going onto the straight. And this pinch into seven doesn't allow him to carry as much speed as he would have liked. Going into T8, Antonyelli takes a wider turn in, opening up the corner, while Russell opts for a more sharper entry. Russell compensates for this by taking a wider exit, and Antelli doesn't have to go as wide as Russell on the exit of nine. So, both drivers fare pretty equally across those sequence of corners, not losing too much time to each other. Approaching the end of the second sector, Russell's about a tenth up on Antelli, going into one of the most crucial corners of the whole lap. This is a super critical hairpin corner to get right as any sort of wheel spin or over or under steer which causes loss of traction coming out of T10 will cost you speed all along the main straight going through T12 all the way through to T13. Both drivers appear to take this corner in their own preferred way. Russell opens up the corner a little bit earlier, whereas Antonelli takes a more narrower approach and then opens it up around midc corner.

[00:03:26]At the exit of the corner, both drivers have similar throttle application and are carrying quite similar speeds.

[00:03:33]Approaching T12 and going through to T13, both drivers are pretty much even.

[00:03:38]The data here is based on GPS coordinates, which is why you see a little bit of bouncing, but they're pretty much even. Now, as we approach T13, Russell breaks marginally earlier than Antelli going into 13. However, does carry a little bit more minimum speed through the 13 and 14 sequence. He also takes a wider entry into T13. What this allows him to do is also carry the higher minimum speed through the corners. And so, by taking that wider entry into T13, he's able to navigate T14 in a more confident manner. So he's able to push on the throttle without worrying about banging wheels with the wall on the outside of 14. It doesn't gain him too much. It only gains him about half a tenth on Antonelli through those corners. But by the end of the lap, we see that that's the deficit in the end. Russell pretty much gets the pole position by just over half a tenth.

[00:04:29]It's going to be a very intriguing season as to how this plays out between Russell and Antelli. Russell finally puts an end to Antonyelli's streak of wins and which will be a confidence booster for him. Antony will no doubt go into the Grand Prix tomorrow wanting to be ahead of Russell at turn