Sam Bird
Formula E driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Great start from Kimi Antonelli, great car positioning by him going around the outside of Oscar Piastri who was boxed in a little bit.

Ding Ding! Fight!

George Russell makes it to Turn One in front of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen but Oscar Piastri has been squeezed out at Turns Three and Four by Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes man has swiped the Australian's place and is now up to third.

Image source, Getty Images

Sam Bird
Formula E driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

I'm looking forward to the opening couple of corners.

Can George Russell hold back Max Verstappen or are we going to see the four-time world champion making moves and getting into the lead early?

Will Murray Walker's famous quote: "And it’s happened immediately - this is amazing!" be needed today? We're about to find out.

George Russell on pole, Max Verstappen alongside him on the front row, two weeks on from their tussle in Barcelona.

Sam Bird
Formula E driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

It looks like the track is low on grip, everybody seems to be struggling with oversteer.

The questions remains, is this a one-stop, is this a two-stop? What will happen on the hard compound tyre?

Only Sauber have tried it out so a lot of teams will be in the unknown, it's going to be fascinating to see how this one unfolds.

The top six are all starting on the medium tyre, while Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc in seventh and eighth have gone hard compound for lights out. It's a good spread of yellow and white across the grid.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff spoke to Sky Sports: "We're concerned [about the temperatures] because it's more than 10 degrees hotter than it was on Friday when we were really good in the long runs."

On George Russell starting in pole with Max Verstappen alongside him: "He's always in control of his emotions. I mean generally the inside wins most of the time but none of them [George Russell or Max Verstappen] are going to yield.

"I think Max doesn't probably care, Max goes in there like Max goes in there, George is not going to yield."

Ferrari were on the podium in Spain last time out - their third of the season - which enabled them to jump above Red Bull and Mercedes and into second place behind McLaren, who are way out in front with an 197-point advantage.

In the midfield battle, Racing Bulls have climbed to sixth, two points clear of Haas in seventh. Aston Martin desperately need a consistent run of points, as the team have slipped to ninth, level on 16 points with Sauber, in recent weeks.

Image source, Getty Images/BBC Sport

Andrew: Hard to believe that we’ve been gifted a Russell / Verstappen front row the very next race after their Spanish GP coming together. I wonder will penalty point totals be a topic of discussion come Turn 4? Oscar Piastri is waiting to pick up the pieces.

This is how the title race looks before we go full pelt around Montreal shortly.

Oscar Piastri has been the driver in form and after his fifth win of the campaign in Barcelona last time out, he's now 10 points clear of McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in the standings, with a further 49 in hand over four-time world champ Max Verstappen in third.

Image source, Getty Images/BBC Sport

Ian Fergusson
BBC weather forecaster

Air temperature is 23C and the track is 49.3C. A light wind, humidity around 30-35%.

Fine and dry; FIA official risk of rain is zero.

Enjoy the race!

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Montreal

Image source, Pirelli 2025

That’s the key question heading into the Canadian Grand Prix. And it hangs on tyre behaviour, which is unknown. Only Sauber have tried the hard tyres so far this weekend, but they will be those used for the majority of the race. But will they ‘grain’ or not - this is where the surface tears and reduces grip.

The medium, the likely start tyre for most, will grain. But when it does, what to do? Stay out to try to get it to the necessary stint length to do a one-stop? That makes sense if the hard tyre performs well and can go to the end with consistently good performance. But if the hard is fragile and grains, making a two-stop better, then the risk is falling between two stools. If the ideal race is a two-stop, the long first stint means a less-than-optimum average that period of the race and then a compromised two stints on the hards.

A pit stop costs about 19 seconds under green-flag conditions, 11 under safety car. Overtaking should be relatively easy, as is usually the case in Canada.

The end of the lap at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is where things can unravel for a driver. Pick up too much speed into Turn 14 and the infamous 'Wall of Champions' will be waiting for you on exit. The marshals here are clearing up the debris from Oscar Piastri's McLaren, after the Australian clipped the wall, picking up a puncture, in final practice on Saturday.

Image source, Getty Images

Jeremiah: It is a Happy Father's Day shoutout to my dad John, my brother James and I, being father's as well. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers on the track and on F1.

Image source, Getty Images

Haas' Esteban Ocon starts in P14, he told Sky Sports: "I think it's going to be quite tough on tyres overall. We will see what we get but it's usually quite a smooth track and that's where the graining comes from.

"That's why we were suffering in practice, there's quite a lot of unknowns because it has been quite a long time since we had a very clean weekend where it has never rained. I'm looking forward to it."

Left front and rear tyre graining is the concern for Esteban Ocon as the Frenchman has a quick natter with Martin Brundle on Sky Sports. This is a special day for Haas, who are celebrating their 200th grand prix in Montreal.

Yuki Tsunoda hasn't got access to the VIP seats for the race start but he will have membership to the 100 club tonight, as Canada is the Red Bull's driver's 100th Formula 1 entry.

Everyone is now running to make it to the grid for the national anthem. The sun shining brightly - it's warm for today's race - as 'O Canada' fires up, performed by the Willingdon School Choir.

Excellent rendition.

Image source, Getty Images

Lance Stroll is back in the saddle this weekend on home turf after missing the Spaniash Grand Prix through injury. The Canadian has been centre stage since Barcelona after it emerged he had lost his temper in the team's garage following his Q2 elimination.

His return to Aston Martin and qualifying yesterday resulted in a Q1 knock out, something stroll called a "tough dday" during the drivers' parade earlier on.

Strolll, who has scored the majority of the team's points this season, added: "Didn't work out as we had hoped for but it's a long race with a lot of opportunity on this track to overtake. Montreal always offers a bit of excitement."

Image source, Getty Images

Former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica won the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours earlier today with a privately entered Ferrari.

Kubica's only win in F1 was at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix for BMW-Sauber.

The number 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P was also driven by China's Yifei Ye and Britain's Phil Hanson.

Kubica was once considered one of the world's best F1 drivers but in 2011 he suffered life-changing injuries in a rallying crash which left him with a partially severed right arm and multiple fractures.

He returned to F1 with Williams in 2019 as team-mate to George Russell, scoring one point that season, and then drove two races for Alfa Romeo in 2021.

Read the full report here