George Russell could have been arrested by the Canadian police as F1 photographer shares shocking details

F1 photographer Kym Illman revealed that Mercedes driver George Russell was close to getting arrested before heading onto the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Saturday for the 2024 Canadian GP qualifying. The British driver stunned everyone by getting the pole position in the session with a time identical to that of Max Verstappen. He got the honor due to having set his lap first.

However, with the Canadian GP's on-track action having captivated fans so far this weekend, it has been a different story off it. Illman previously revealed how several F1 fans were angry on Friday after they were denied entry into the track premises by police officers, who are reported to have wrongly informed them that both the FP1 and FP2 sessions were washed out and canceled.

The information allegedly shared by the police turned out to be false as organizers denied reports of them telling the police about any cancelation of the sessions.

Now, the police are once again in the limelight after Illman revealed that they had stopped George Russell's car on the road as he made his way to the premises because they had changed the planned route for the drivers.

In his behind-the-scenes video of the 2024 Canadian GP weekend on YouTube, Kym Illman explained Saturday's situation.

"I caught George coming in and one of his crew told me that they'd had a big run-in with the police. The traffic situation had changed dramatically today from the previous few days and George thought he was doing the right thing by going on the same route that he'd taken before.

Well, the police were on the scene and they weren't happy at all. They pulled him up and they had a very strong word with him and I was told that one of the police actually almost threw his badge at George. Sounds like he didn't care whether or not he was an F1 driver. It was an honest mistake according to George's camp."

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George Russell gives his take on the changeable conditions in Montreal

Mercedes driver George Russell stated in his post-qualifying press conference that the changeable weather conditions at the 2024 Canadian GP were pretty difficult to deal with as they impacted the track surface as well.

"Yeah, it was really challenging, to be honest. All weekend, every single session and every lap it's been changing. The sun comes out, the track temperature warms up, then the clouds come in, it's spitting. And it's just really, really difficult to find that sweet spot."

George Russell will start the race from P1 for the first time since Brazil 2022 when he won the Sprint to lead the pack for the main race. His win in the main race at Interlagos remains his only victory in the sport.