Hamilton takes Montreal pole position

Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix from pole position.

This will be the first time this season a Red Bull driver will not lead the field away from the grid.

Hamilton set an impressive 1’15’’105 fastest lap time to beat Webber for pole. Interestingly enough though, the McLaren driver set his time on the softer tyres – whose durability is causing some concerns to the teams – while both Red Bull drivers were running on the harder version.

Vettel will line up on the second row of the grid alongside Alonso. The third row of the grid will be shared by Button and Liuzzi. Massa and Kubica will start from the fourth row. Sutil and Rosberg will line up on the fifth row.

Let’s have a look at how the session panned out:

Q1

Glock, Petrov and Trulli were the first to leave the pits. As Petrov, set the early pace, the frontrunners waited for some minutes before joining the action.

Alonso took over from the Renault driver at the front with 13 minutes remaining. The Spaniard traded the fastest time with Sutil and Hulkenberg before Petrov retook the lead. It was then Webber’s turn to pop up at the front… only for Liuzzi to topple him.

Hamilton appeared on top at the halfway point and was the first to dip under the 1’16 barrier. With a 1’15’’889 fastest lap, the McLaren driver didn’t need to push harder and spent the last five minutes in the pits.

Vettel was second fastest. Alonso, Rosberg and Kubica completed the top five.

Further down the order, it was a close battle between the Saubers of De la Rosa and Kobayashi for the last spot in Q2. The Japanese driver did his very best but was four tenths of a second slower than his teammate and was eliminated alongside the six drivers from the new teams.

Q2

With the softer tyres on, the drivers managed to up the pace in this second part of the session.

Lewis Hamilton once again set the pace but, this time, he was not the only one to set a time in the 1’15. Vettel and Alonso almost matched his mark and safely made it through to Q3. Kubica, Webber, Button, Rosberg, Liuzzi and Sutil also did well to qualify in the top ten.

It was more difficult for Massa who narrowly made it. On the contrary, Michael Schumacher failed to make it through and ended 13th fastest. Barrichello, Hulkenberg, Petrov, Buemi, Alguersuari and De la Rosa were also eliminated.

Q3

With a few hundredths of a second separating Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso, the scene was set up for a really close fight for pole.

Lewis Hamilton completed his first timed lap in 1’15’’500 but this was not enough. Alonso, Webber and Vettel managed to beat him but he further upped the pace in the closing moments of the session to snatch pole position away from Webber.

Vettel was third fastest, Alonso fourth.