Audi Revolut F1 Team took to the track for the opening day of track action at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto claiming sixth row for tomorrow's Sprint.

Friday running in Montreal, with the sole practice session of the weekend and Sprint Qualifying, provided valuable learning opportunities for the team, with both drivers working through evolving conditions among a highly competitive midfield. Across the sessions, the team focused on refining the car setup on the low-grip Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where small margins proved decisive throughout the order.

Despite some disruptions caused by numerous red flags in practice, both drivers were able to make progress as the day unfolded, with encouraging signs in terms of overall balance and competitiveness. In a razor-edge Sprint Qualifying session, both Nico and Gabi went close to claiming a spot in SQ3, but had to settle for 11th and 12th by the smallest of margins - less than a tenth in Nico's case. With the field separated by only fractions of a second, the team now turns its attention to overnight analysis and final refinements ahead of the Sprint Race.

Allan McNish, Racing Director: "As we expected from Free Practice and previous sessions, Sprint Qualifying was always going to be an extremely tight affair, with Nico and Gabi within four hundreds of each other. It is obviously frustrating to miss on the final segment of Sprint Qualifying for such small margins but, on the positive side, it was good to see that both drivers could get the car right into the right window. This puts us in a reasonable position for tomorrow's Sprint and also gives us confidence heading into the main race itself. There's still a bit of work to do overnight, and hopefully we can find those four hundredths to make a crucial step forward."

Nico Hulkenberg: "FP1 was quite disrupted on my side, so it wasn't the smoothest build-up heading into Sprint Qualifying. Nevertheless, the car felt better as the day progressed and overall, the feeling was decent. Missing out by half a tenth is never ideal, especially in such a tight midfield fight, but the encouraging part is that we look competitive again. With the Sprint tomorrow morning, there's still plenty to play for. We'll take the learnings from today, keep pushing and aim to put ourselves on the right side of things tomorrow."

Gabriel Bortoleto: "I think we could have extracted a little bit more from our package today. My last lap was decent, but not enough to make it through to SQ3. The track was tricky out there - very dirty so early in the race weekend - and that also put a strain on tyre temperatures. Still, I think we can be quite satisfied with what we've put together. Looking at where we stand, I think we have a realistic chance of being in the mix in the top ten tomorrow.

Check out our Friday gallery from Montreal here.