Russell

George Russell bounced back after a difficult recent run to beat Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli to sprint pole at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Briton, who is 20 points adrift of the Italian after four races this season, headed Antonelli by 0.068 seconds after being fastest on both runs in final qualifying.

Lando Norris headed an all-McLaren second row, 0.315secs off pole and 0.019secs in front of team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Ferrari and Red Bull completed a two-by-two top eight with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Charles Leclerc and then Max Verstappen in front of Isack Hadjar.

Russell came to Montreal looking to turn around what he admitted had been a “turbulent” start to the season, in which Antonelli has won three of the four grands prix so far, and he has started the weekend off well.

“It feels great after a tough Miami but I never doubted myself,” said Russell. “I always knew what I could do. This is an amazing circuit, high grip, and feels like you’re driving a proper grand prix car.”

Mercedes have a major upgrade on their car for this race and Russell said it had made a significant difference.

“It’s definitely feeling great,” he said. “The team have done a great job to bring this forward. Pleased to have it on the car and pleased to be back in P1. It’s been a little while but still a big focus for tomorrow.”

Antonelli said he had started his lap with his tyres under temperature and described his session as “messy”.

McLaren also brought an upgrade to Montreal, their second in as many races, but while it kept them within range of Mercedes it was not enough to counterbalance the effect of Mercedes on this track, where the world champions have often struggled.

Norris said: “A good surprise. After this morning, we were a little bit worried about how far off we were. More just the lack of confidence in the car.

“But we changed some things on the car and seemed to make a good improvement. I could have got more out of it, but not enough to close the gap to the guys ahead.”

Hamilton was 0.361secs off pole and 0.084secs ahead of Leclerc on a circuit where he shares the record number of wins with Michael Schumacher.

The seven-time champion was pleased with his performance, saying his decision not to go into the Ferrari simulator before this race, because of a feeling it was leading to incorrect set-up choices, had paid off.

“Probably the best qualifying session we’ve had for some time,” said Hamilton. “Great work with the engineers.

“The car felt really fantastic from P1. We made just subtle changes going into qualifying. Q1 and Q2 was looking good and then I don’t know what the others are able to turn up a bit more, but I am just happy to be in the fight.

“I was having so much fun out there, and the fact I didn’t do the sim and it was the best I felt all year. I chose a set-up we’ve not used before and its transformed the car for me.”

And Verstappen, struggling with a car he said was “jumping” at the rear, was just 0.101secs clear of tea-mate Hadjar.

“My feeling in the car was not very good,” said Verstappen. “I was struggling a lot with the ride. All over the bumps I couldn’t put my foot down. Actually my feet were even flying off the pedals and it made it very difficult to be consistent.”

The Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park, Md., could feature a historic finish even if there is no chance to produce a Triple Crown winner this year.

The Preakness post time is 4:01 p.m. PDT. The race will air on NBC.

Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo isn’t running the Preakness. Cherie DeVaux, the first woman to train a Derby winner, said the schedule was too tight for Golden Tempo, with two weeks between races.

But trainer Brittany Russell has prepared Taj Mahal for the race and could follow up on DeVaux’s big win with one of her own. Russell would be the first female trainer to win the Preakness and could extend a potential female trainer Triple Crown bid in an industry long dominated by men.

“It would sort of feel like probably a fairy tale,” Russell said of a potential win. “ … It would mean an awful lot.”

Iron Honor in the ninth post position opened the day favored slightly at 9-2. Taj Mahal in post No. 1, Chip Honcho in post No. 6 and Incredibolt at post No. 12 were not far behind with 5-1 odds.

Taj Mahal has one other edge, winning three previous races at Laurel Park, home of the Preakness.

If another female trainer makes history Saturday in the Preakness, no one can say they weren’t warned.

Unlike Golden Tempo, who pulled off a 23-1 shocker to make Cherie DeVaux the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner, Taj Mahal will start at a much lower price for Brittany Russell.

The undefeated and untested son of Nyquist was made the co-second choice on the morning line when post positions were drawn Monday afternoon at Laurel Park, the temporary home of the Preakness while Pimlico — about 30 miles north — is being rebuilt. Laurel Park, located halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., has never hosted the Preakness, which will start just after 4 p.m. PDT on NBC.

With Golden Tempo becoming the second straight Kentucky Derby winner and third in the last five years to race in the Preakness, there will be just three runners from the Derby — Ocelli (third), Incredibolt (sixth) and Robusta (14th).

Among the full field of 14 starters, though, only Taj Mahal can complete the “Triple Crown” for women trainers, with Russell seeking to follow DeVaux and Jena Antonucci, who captured the Belmont three years ago with Arcangelo.

“It would sort of feel like probably a fairy tale,” Russell said. “ … It would mean an awful lot.”

Taj Mahal was one of three horses listed at 5-1 on the morning line behind lukewarm 9-2 favorite Iron Honor. He is the only Preakness starter who has raced at Laurel; in fact, he has never run anywhere else, going three for three there, including an 8¼-length triumph last month in the Federico Tesio.

His Beyer Speed Figure that day was 92, just two points (equal to about a length) behind Ocelli’s number in the Kentucky Derby. Chip Honcho, with a 92 for his runner-up effort in the Risen Star in February, is the only other Preakness horse with a Beyer number above 90 in a route race.

Taj Mahal was in the same yearling sale as Iron Honor (also a son of Nyquist) in September 2024 at Keeneland and sold for $50,000 more than his rival this week ($525,000 to $475,000). The colt originally was trained by Bob Baffert but was sent to Russell last fall when he wasn’t progressing.

“When he first showed up, it took some time for him to come around,” Russell said. “And, honestly, that’s why he was sent my way. If horses aren’t progressing or need a change of scenery, luckily for me it’s kind of become their place [for the owners] to send them.

“… The first time I worked him, did I think he would become a star? No, it took some time, but he developed and he progressed.”

Taj Mahal won a maiden race Feb. 6, then came back 15 days later to win a minor stakes race. He had almost two months between that race and the Tesio on April 18.

Russell’s husband, Sheldon, will ride Taj Mahal, who will break from the rail.

“To be fair, he’s a good gate horse,” Sheldon Russell said. “He broke so sharp last time. If he were to do the same thing again, he’d put me in a great spot. We’ve just got to hold that spot until we get to the bend, but we’ve got a longer run this time. He’s going to have to overcome a few things, but good horses overcome things.”

Iron Honor, who joins Taj Mahal as the most inexperienced horses in the field with three starts each, won his first two races, including the Gotham at Aqueduct. But he finished seventh last month in the Wood Memorial, his only try around two turns. He will be ridden for the first time by Flavien Prat.

“[He] got bothered in the first turn from a bad post and … just never really relaxed,” said his trainer, Chad Brown, who won the Preakness in 2017 (Cloud Computing) and 2022 (Early Voting). “We took the blinkers off the horse, gave him a chance to get over that experience and he seems to be in a good place right now, training just the way we want.”

The other horses listed at 5-1 were Incredibolt, who wasn’t even mentioned as a possibility for the race until Monday, and Chip Honcho, who finished ahead of Golden Tempo in the Risen Star but skipped the Derby after a poor showing in the Louisiana Derby. Ocelli is 6-1, and Napoleon Solo, the only Grade 1 winner in the field (last year’s Champagne Stakes), is 8-1.

Incredibolt, trained by Riley Mott, at least spares the Preakness from not having a single graded-stakes winner in a two-turn race. The son of Bolt d’Oro captured the Grade 3 Street Sense last fall over 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Downs. (He also won the ungraded Virginia Derby this year at 1⅛ miles at Colonial Downs.)

Chip Honcho will break from the No. 6 post under Jose Ortiz, who won the Derby. Ortiz’s brother, Irad Ortiz Jr., who was second in the Derby with Renegade, will be next to him in the No. 5 post aboard Talkin.

Ocelli is the most experienced horse in the race, with seven starts. He’s also the only starter not to have won a race. No maiden has won the Preakness in the modern era, with the last victory coming in 1888. Bodexpress was the last to try, in 2019, but he reared leaving the starting gate and dumped his jockey.

RUSSELL Brand has confessed he thinks about going to prison “every day” ahead of his rape trial and denies being a “grifter”.

The comedian and actor, 50, who now hosts a podcast is facing trial on three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault against six women from 1999 to 2009.

He denies all the charges against him.

The star, who wore a crucifix around his neck, talked at length with Piers Morgan on his YouTube show Uncensored.

Asked if he thought about the reality of going to jail if he was found guilty, Brand said: “Yes… all the time, every day.”

He added: “I will be with God wherever I am. And of course, I would prefer to be with God with my wife and my kids… I’m not saying that that’s not a difficult image, you know, and a difficult thing to contemplate, of course it is.”

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Brand, who brought a Bible with him, continued: “We are going to find out the truth, and we’re going to deal with the truth.

“Because actually, I am not afraid of the truth and if the truth is I am going to prison, then I am. My job will be, do not be afraid of that truth, that is what you are going to do.”

The one-time Hollywood star claimed he would face being behind bars “with God” if he was found guilty of the charges against him.

He also strenuously defended his innocence.

Morgan put it to him that there were people who considered him “basically just a massive grifter”.

Brand immediately shot back: “No, that’s what they say about you.”

Morgan added: “You’re very eloquent, you can be very persuasive with the power of your words, but that actually when it comes to any of these issues, you don’t really have a personal principle.”

Brand said: “I do, I do.”

In an earlier interview for The Megyn Kelly Show podcast admitted he had sex with a 16-year-old when he was 30.

He said his relationships at the time were “exploitative” – but stressed his sex with the girl was legal.

Brand said: “In Europe and in the United Kingdom where I’m from, the age of consent is 16. And I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30.

“But when I was 30, I was a very different person. I was a lot younger and I was an immature 30-year-old.”

Brand told host Megyn Kelly his relationships in the past were “selfish”.

He continued: “I did not apply enough consideration barely any I suppose really to how that sex was affecting other people.”

At the height of his fame, the actor starred in a number of Hollywood films, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.

His trial at Southwark Crown Court is due to start on October 12.

Russell Brand, the British comedian and actor who has been accused by multiple women of rape and sexual assault, said his sexual flings amid the height of his fame in the early aughts included sleeping with a 16-year-old girl.

Brand confirmed the relationship to Megyn Kelly on the the latest episode of her eponymous podcast and YouTube show published Wednesday. “I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30,” he said, “but when I was 30 I was a different person. I was a lot younger and I was an immature 30-year-old.”

The “Get Him to the Greek” actor, 50, emphasized that the age of consent in the United Kingdom is 16 and reflected on his behavior at the time, adding that he thinks having consensual sex as a famous person “involved exploitation.” He said he felt fame and addiction paved the way for “opportunity for endless consent which led me to be a hedonist and a fool and exploiter of women.”

“That is wrong and that is something that needs to be redeemed and addressed and atoned for,” he added.

Brand’s relationship with a 16-year-old girl became public in 2023 when the Times of London and Britain’s Channel 4 published a joint investigation detailing allegations of rape, sexual assault and other abusive behavior against the once-in-demand actor. One of the women who raised allegations against Brand said she became involved with the former actor when she was 16 and he was 31, and that he referred to her as “the child” in their relationship. According to the woman, Brand reportedly forced his penis down her throat, making it difficult to breathe, and she fought him off by punching him in the stomach. Brand denied the claims at the time.

The investigation centered on alleged incidents that occurred between 2006 and 2013 — the peak of Brand’s Hollywood fame — and laid the groundwork for additional complaints against the raunchy comedian to come to light.

In April 2025, the Metropolitan Police Service charged Brand with single counts of rape, indecent assault, oral rape and two counts of sexual assault connected to alleged attacks on multiple women between 1999 and 2005. U.K. authorities pressed additional rape and sexual assault charges against the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” actor in December. He will stand trail in October.

Brand, ex-husband to pop star Katy Perry (who is facing her own sexual assault scandal),fell mostly out of public favor within the past decade and pivoted his focus to religious and “free-thinking” content. Last year he appeared at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025.

At the beginning of the podcast episode, Kelly said that after learning about allegations against Brand she “felt anger for a couple years” toward the actor. However, Kelly said she grew open to speaking with him after some time and an “enormous amount of open-mindedness to [Brand] being railroaded and attacked by people.”

Notably, Kelly in November offered a flimsy definition of pedophilia when it came to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Citing “somebody very close” to Epstein’s case, Kelly said Epstein “ was into the barely legal type, like, he liked 15-year-old girls,” Kelly continued.

“I’m not trying to make an excuse for this, I’m just giving you facts — that he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds,” she added at the time. “But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passer-by.”

Times staff writer Meredith Blake contributed to this report.