Canadian Lance Stroll celebrated a stunning first career pole position for Racing Point at the Turkish Formula One grand prix to end Mercedes’ season-long stranglehold on qualifying.

Stroll was the first Canadian on pole since 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will join Stroll on the front row with Racing Point’s Mexican Sergio Perez third after a rain-interrupted qualifying session on a slippery Istanbul Park track.

Daniel Ricciardo only just scraped into the third and last of the qualifying sessions but ended up finishing fifth in his Renault as he seeks to consolidate his overall fourth position in the drivers’ championship.

Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton could only qualify in a surprisingly lowly sixth position for a race that could seal his seventh title, while Mercedes teammate and sole title rival Valtteri Bottas was ninth.