Live: Piastri is ‘pretty pleased’ to start third as he hunts sixth F1 win this season

There will be 18 cars that will line up on the grid for this morning’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly will begin this race from the pit lane.

• First grand prix — 1978
• Number of laps — 70
• Lap distance — 4,361 metres
• Race distance — 305.27 kilometres
• Fastest lap — 1:13.078 Valtteri Bottas (2019)

The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is a mix of heavy-breaking zones and free-flowing straights.

There are plenty of overtaking opportunities into chicanes and the massive hairpin at turn 10.

The Wall of Champions is a hazard located at the end of the final turn, renowned for ending the races of several drivers after they crash into it.

The Wall of Champions was coined following the 1999 edition of the grand prix, where over the course of the weekend, three world champions — Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher — crashed into it.

World champion Max Verstappen will need to be on his best behaviour this month or risk a suspension from Formula 1.

Verstappen has accrued 11 penalty points in the previous calendar year for incidents on track.

An automatic one-race ban is enforced for any driver who has 12 points in a calendar year.

Verstappen will have two points taken away at the end of the month, meaning he needs to stay out of trouble at the Canadian Grand Prix on Monday, AEST, and the Austrian Grand Prix on June 29.

Verstappen collected three penalty points for a collision with Mercedes driver George Russell, which the Red Bull ace admitted “was not right and shouldn’t have happened”.

Verstappen’s penalty after hitting Russell dropped him from fifth to 10th at the Spanish Grand Prix, and leaves him 49 points adrift of Piastri in the championship fight.

With McLaren’s dominance so far this season, it is hard to see Verstappen overcoming the deficit to Piastri, or the 39-point gap he currently has to Norris in second. A race ban will all but end his title quest.

The Dutchman will have two points removed from his licence at the end of the month. Those points came from last year’s Austrian Grand Prix where he and Lando Norris collided while battling for the lead late in the race.

Norris finished last, Verstappen had a punctured tyre but was able to pit and finish fifth.

Verstappen will then have another two points removed on October 27, one year since he forced Norris off track at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The last driver to be banned for penalty points was Kevin Magnussen, who missed last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The F1 cars are out on track with the pit lane opening.

This is their chance to make sure everything is working with the car, then getting to the grid.

— reporting by Reuters

Ferrari won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the third year in a row on Sunday with Poland’s Robert Kubica taking the chequered flag for the customer AF Corse team on a stirring afternoon at the Sarthe circuit.

The ex-Formula 1 driver’s yellow 83 car, shared with Yifei Ye — China’s first winner — and Britain’s Phil Hanson, crossed the line after 387 laps in the 93rd edition of the French endurance race.

The number 6 Porsche Penske shared by France’s Kevin Estre, Belgian Laurens Vanthoor and Australian Matt Campbell finished second, 14.084 seconds behind.

The red 51 factory Ferrari of 2023 winners Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado completed the podium with last year’s winners Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina fourth in the number 50 car.

“I finally managed to win it and in Hypercar,” said Kubica of his fifth attempt, his first three in the second-tier LMP2 category, to become Poland’s first overall winner since Le Mans was first staged in 1923.

“Great job from everyone… it has not been a smooth one but we deserved it. We have been fast, only a few mistakes which we couldn’t avoid but that’s Le Mans.

“Happy for Ferrari: Three years in a row with three different crews, different cars. Congratulations to them, it’s amazing.”

Ye, who joined Hanson in riding the car into the pit lane, said winning was a dream come true.

“I have to pinch myself, I’m still dreaming,” he said.

AF Corse are the first customer team to win Le Mans since ADT Champion Racing triumphed with an Audi R8 in 2005, giving Denmark’s Tom Kristensen a record seventh win. The Dane would go on to win nine times in total.

Kubica’s triumph came on the same weekend as the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, scene of his only Formula 1 win with BMW Sauber in 2008 after a huge crash at the same track in 2007.

It also capped an astonishing racing redemption story for the 40-year-old whose Formula 1 career ended (albeit for a brief return several years later) after a near-fatal rally crash in Italy in 2011 that partially severed his right forearm.

Yuki Tsunoda was handed a 10-place grid penalty for overtaking another car while the track was under red flag conditions.

That means the Red Bull driver will begin the race from 20th.

McLaren has not been the front runner this weekend in Montreal, with struggles in practice showing they do have chinks in their armour.

Drivers’ championship leader Oscar Piastri was able to wrestle his car to third fastest in qualifying, behind George Russell (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull).

Mercedes has been impressive this weekend, with Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli qualifying fourth fastest.

Piastri has just spoken during the drivers’ parade and said he has confidence heading into the Canadain Grand Prix, despite a relatively rough weekend.

“Honestly, pretty pleased to be off third today,’ he said.

Our pace should be OK, I hope. We’ll wait and see what Mercedes has, or Max (Verstappen) has, but, I think we’re in a pretty good place.”

G’day Ian.

Now it’s correct mate.

• 4am AEST: NSW, ACT, Vic, Qld, Tas
• 3:30am ACST: South Australia, Northern Territory
• 2am AWST: Western Australia

It has been a successful weekend for both Australians in the all-female F1 Academy.

Aiva Anagnostiadis and Joanne Cictone have both scored championship points this weekend, the first time two Aussies have done that on the same weekend.

Anagnostiadis claimed four championship points for her eighth-place finish in the first race at Montreal.

Ciconte has added two more points to her championship tally, placing ninth in the third race of the weekend.

Anagnostiadis is 13th in the F1 Academy drivers’ championship with five points, while Ciconte is 14th with four points.

F1 championship leader Oscar Piastri will start from the second row for the Canadian Grand Prix, as George Russell takes pole ahead of Max Verstappen in Montreal.

Here is when the Canadian Grand Prix will start, wherever you are in Australia.

• 4am AEST: NSW, ACT, Vic, Qld, Tas
• 3:30am ACST: South Australia, Northern Territory
• 2am AWST: Western Australia

Good morning, Australia.

Welcome to ABC Sport’s live digital coverage of the 2025 Formula 1 world championship.

Round 10 of the championship will be held at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, in Montreal, Canada.

Max Verstappen has won the previous three Canadian Grand Prix, but the dominance of McLaren this season has Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris firmly as favourites.

Join the conversation in the comment section of the live blog.