Hamilton grabs first-ever pole in Montreal

Lewis Hamilton Canada

Rising Formula One star Lewis Hamilton takes his first pole position with a fantastic display in the qualifying session at Montreal, the scene of this year’s Canadian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver beat his world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso by four tenths of a second, setting a lap time of one minute, 15.707 seconds. The Spaniard tried to improve his time and was actually faster than Lewis in the first two sectors in his final run. But at the end of the lap, Fernando made a mistake at the fianl chicane and this resulted in second position.

BMW-Sauber Nick Heidfeld will start in an impressive third ahead of the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa (fourth and fifth respectively). This performance from Heidfeld matches his best starting position since Melbourne.

Raikkonen and Massa were expected to set the pace but seem to struggle around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The Finn was a tenth quicker than the Brazilian, but both were seven tenths of a second behind leader Hamilton.

Mark Webber (Red Bull) and Nico Rosberg (Williams) continued their promising weekends by securing sixth and seventh respectively, ahead of Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber team-mate Robert Kubica, and Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella.

Jarno Trulli completes the top ten for Toyota, which is a great recovery especially when you consider that the team suffered suspension dramas in the first practice sessions.

Back to the man of the moment, Lewis Hamilton who has hailed this result as a “fantastic day” after grabbing his maiden pole position.

This is an amazing achievement as this is only his sixth race in Formula One. With Hamilton leading team-mate Alonso, this is the British team’s second consecutive pole position of the season and its first in Canada since 1998.

“It has been a fantastic day and a fantastic weekend, the team have done a fantastic job,” said Hamilton. “It came down to this and had to pull it out at the last minute. It is not easy, especially when you have a two-time world champion hunting you down. I am very happy.

“For the final lap the car was sweet, the tyres were perfect and I had to pull it all out. The important thing was to be consistent.”

Hamilton, tied on points with his team-mate at the head of the championship standings, will be looking for his maiden victory in tomorrow’s race.

The rookie reckons it will be vital to arrive in the lead at the first corner.

“Tomorrow is going to be tough as always, but I have not been fortunate enough to start on pole (before),” the Briton added. “Tomorrow is a new experience for me, we have the car, the strategy and the team.

“I have to get to the first corner first and then after that we have to stay consistent.”

If Lewis does this without any incident and drive a fast and clean race, the British star could win his first ever Grand Prix. Now that would be a great result for Formula One!

Starting grid – Canadian Grand Prix

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1:15.707
2. ALONSO McLaren 1:16.163
3. HEIDFELD BMW 1:16.266
4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:16.411
5. MASSA Ferrari 1:16.570
6. WEBBER Red Bull 1:16.913
7. ROSBERG Williams 1:16.919
8. KUBICA BMW 1:16.993
9. FISICHELLA Renault 1:17.229
10. TRULLI Toyota 1:17.747
11. SATO Super Aguri 1:16.743
12. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:16.760
13. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:17.116
14. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:17.304
15. BUTTON Honda 1:17.541
16. SPEED Toro Rosso 1:17.571
17. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:17.542
18. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:17.634
19. WURZ Williams 1:17.806
20. SUTIL Spyker 1:18.089
21. ALBERS Spyker 1:18.536
22. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:19.196

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