Mega Hamilton trumps Red Bulls to take pole

In Montreal Lewis Hamilton broke the Red Bull stranglehold on 2010 pole positions

Jun.12 (YallaF1.com & GMM) Lewis Hamilton meant business from the moment qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix began. He topped the timing screens in Q1 and Q2 before producing a mega lap under extreme pressure to nab pole position by over a quarter second from the Red Bull duo, who will not start a Grand Prix from top spot on the grid for the first time this season.

Top three in Montreal qualifying Mark Webber (second) Lewis Hamilton (pole) Sebastian Vettel (third)

Hamilton, who has qualified three times out of three in pole at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, said: “It’s been a great day, it’s a bit overwhelming really. When the guys told me I’d got pole, it reminded me of my first win and first pole here in 2007.”

The McLaren driver was using a different tyre in the decisive Q3 segment — the fragile ‘option’ or softer compound, as opposed to the harder ‘prime’ fitted to his Red Bull rivals. This may compromise Hamilton in the race, but the team have taken a gamble as team boss Martin Whitmarsh explained to BBC:  “We would hope for an early-ish safety car, but I think the quickest way to run the race anyway is to start on the soft tyre, run a short (first) stint, and run on the prime for most of the race. If there’s a safety car it’s a very strong strategy.”

Lewis Hamilton celebrates after arriving in parc ferme

The only blight on a perfect afternoon for the Englishman could be that he had to be transported to parc ferme in an FIA car, after his engineer told him to stop on the circuit on the in-lap so there is enough fuel left in the tank for a mandatory fuel sample.

“The FIA don’t take kindly to you not having enough fuel to get into the pits at the end of the lap — they’ll be taking a look at that,” predicted BBC commentator Martin Brundle.

Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel hogged the top two spots on the screens but were bumped a notch down as Hamilton was simply too good on his final flying lap. The magnitude of the 2008 World Champion’s lap can be compared to Jenson Button’s effort which was 0.416 seconds down on Hamilton when the chequered flag dropped to end the session.

Fernando Alonso will start fourth on the grid

The entire qualifying was a dogfight between Hamilton, the Red Bull pair and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) with Robert Kubica (Renault) looking strong in Q2 but failing to deliver when it mattered.

Thus Webber, second quickest, will start beside Hamilton from the front row of the grid with Vettel, third fastest, sharing row two with Alonso who was fourth best. The Ferrari F10 looking better than Turkey but perhaps a tad down on the Red Bulls and McLarens. Nevertheless a much better qualifying performance than what they endured in Istanbul.

Button has had an error filled and frustrating weekend where he has struggled to come to grips (excuse the pun) with the track on the Ile de Notre Dame while his team mate has looked totally at ease and extremely rapid on the temporary track.

Vitantonio Liuzzi qualified better than he has all year

The reigning World Champion will head up row three with Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) surprising all and sundry by setting the sixth best time. A performance that should buy the Italian some time after a poor first half of the season.

Seventh fastest was Felipe Massa who again has been overshadowed by Ferrari team mate Alonso. Kubica will share row four with the Brazilian.

Adrian Sutil (Force India) set the ninth best time while Mercedes GP will be wondering how it all went wrong, with Nico Rosberg only managing the 10th fastest time and Michael Schumacher not managing to progress into Q3. The seven times F1 World Champion will start from 13th on the grid. The team’s worst performance in qualifying this season and embarrassingly worst of the Mercedes engined teams.

Q1: No big surprises

Bruno Senna in action during qualifying

Dropping out in Q1 was the usual half dozen suspects, namely the six drivers of the three new teams. Also failing to make it through to the next session was Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) who could only manage the 17th best time in his first qualifying around the Ile de Notre Dame.

The two Lotus drivers were next best with Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli destined to share row ten on the grid having set the 19th and 20th best times respectively.

Timo Glock (Virgin Racing) was 21st on the timing screens after the first 15 minute session and will head up row eleven with Bruno Senna (Hispania Racing) starting beside him.

Heading the final row will be Lucas di Grassi (Virgin Racing) with Karun Chandhok starting from the last slot and managing only three laps before problems set in which is pretty much the story of his weekend on his first visit to Montreal.

At the top it was five drivers in five different cars headed up by Hamilton who was quickest from Vettel, Alonso, Rosberg, Kubica, Button, Webber, Sutil, Petrov and Schumacher.

Q2: Early shower for Schumacher

Michael Schumacher failed to make it beyond Q2

Biggest scalp to miss the final Q3 shootout was Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) who not only missed the cut but on messing up his final flying lap on the exit of the final turn onto the straight could only manage the 13th best time. Team mate Nico Rosberg was up in seventhy at the end of Q2.

Rubens Barrichello will headup an all Williams sixth row on the grid, notching the eleventh best time with Nico Hulkenberg next best in 12th, the latter was best of the first time visitors to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Vitaly Petrov (Renault) was 14th on the timing sheets ahead of the Toro Rosso pair of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari who were 15th and 16th respectively.

Slowest in the session was Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber) who will start from 18th on the grid.

Up at the front it was as close as can be, one second separating the top 13 drivers. The timing screens were busy at the summit in a case of trading places with the fastest five having a stint at the top, When Q2 ended it was Hamilton again top of the timing screens followed by Vettel, Alonso, Kubica, Webber, Button, Rosberg, Liuzzi and Sutil.

Qualifying – 12 June