Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel achieved his 32nd pole position in Formula One with an exceptional performance in qualifying at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The Red Bull driver led every qualifying session in Montreal. To claim his second successive pole is a fantastic achievement.
Vettel’s performance came despite Red Bull being told to change their front hubs and brake ducts after the FIA feared that they were conferring an aerodynamic benefit and the recent modification to the rear floor of the RB8.
His margin to Lewis Hamilton was three-tenths of a second. A quite comfortable gap to his nearest challenger.
In fact, the Red Bull driver’s cushion was surprisingly sufficient given that just eight-tenths had covered 17 cars in Q1 while the whole Q2 field had been within a second.
This really showcases how incredibly close the level of competition in Formula One this season.
Vettel started Q3 on provisional pole with a lap time of one minute, 13.905 seconds. No one was able to beat this and yet the young German was able to improve with a time of one minute, 13.784 seconds on his second run.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton will join Vettel on the front row, having grabbed second from Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari with his second Q3 attempt.
Alonso looked like a pole contender until a disappointing final sector on his best lap left the Scuderia driver to settle for third.
Mark Webber completes the top four, followed by Nico Rosberg in the leader Mercedes – four positions ahead of team-mate Michael Schumacher – and Felipe Massa’s Ferrari in sixth.
Romain Grosjean reached Q3 for Lotus and claimed seventh but his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was eliminated and will start in P12.
Force India’s Paul di Resta made his second Q3 appearance of the season and earned eighth for his efforts.
As for Jenson Button, he avoided a third consecutive Q2 elimination, but only just.
The McLaren driver sat in tenth at the end of the second segment and looked in real danger of being edged out by Pastor Maldonado, only for the Spanish Grand Prix winner to spin his Williams into the wall at the final chicane, leaving him P17.
Button will start on row five, having spoiled one set of super softs by locking up.
After crashing into the Wall of Champions in practice, Bruno Senna will start one position ahead of his Williams team-mate Maldonado in P16.
Also out in Q2 were both Saubers – with Kamui Kobayashi just 0.008 seconds shy of a Q3 spot in P11 and Sergio Perez back in P15 – the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo.
Following his crash in the build-up to qualifying, Jean-Eric Vergne’s underwhelming Saturday continued as a mistake on his best lap saw the Frenchman exiting Q1 for the fourth time in his first seven events.
Not only was he knocked out, but Vergne was outqualified by both Caterhams and will start down in a disappointing P20.
In another Q1 surprise, Pedro de la Rosa put his HRT in P21 on the grid, beating both Marussias.
Qualifying positions, Canadian Grand Prix:
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m13.784s
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m14.087s
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m14.151s
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m14.346s
5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m14.411s
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m14.465s
7. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m14.645s
8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m14.705s
9. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m14.812s
10. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m15.182s
11. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m14.688s
12. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m14.734s
13. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m14.748s
14. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m15.078s
15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m15.156s
16. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m15.170s
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m15.231s
18. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m16.263s
19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m16.482s
20. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m16.602s
21. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m17.492s
22. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m17.901s
23. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m18.255s
24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m18.330s
107 per cent time: 1m19.887s
Following the controversy over the RB8’s hole in the floor, this qualifying result by Sebastian Vettel was a vindication for Red Bull. Autosport.com has the story.
Sebastian Vettel felt Red Bull Racing’s Canadian Grand Prix pole position was a vindication for the team following the controversy over its car’s floor design.
Red Bull was forced to change the design of its floor ahead of the Montreal weekend because of the controversial ‘holes’ in it, which the FIA ruled were illegal.
The changes did not seem to impact the performance much, however, as Vettel secured his second pole position of the season by over three tenths of a second.
“We changed the car, we had to close the hole/slot – it seemed to work pretty well without the hole,” said Vettel after qualifying.
“It is not just a hole in the floor that makes all the difference. It’s a shame it went one way or another, and a shame it was declared. We never feared for performance.
“We were not afraid it would have a big impact on performance. It was good today and even without the hole I enjoyed today.”
Vettel said the team faced somewhat of a race against time to modify the car for the weekend, and he admitted he was surprised by the relatively big gap to the cars behind him today.
“There wasn’t a lot of time to react, it depends on what kind of schedule to follow,” he said. “We were focusing on ourselves and that was important.
“In qualifying we tried to get the maximum out of every run. We seemed to improve in every run, and moving away from guys behind was a bit of a surprise.
“On this track is usually quite difficult to make a big difference so I am very happy.”
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton says warmer temperatures hindered the team during qualifying in Canada. Autosport.com has the details.
Lewis Hamilton admitted that the warmer temperatures of Saturday in Montreal hampered his McLaren team and that he was surprised to be as high as second on the Canadian Grand Prix grid.
The Briton had been quickest in both Friday practice sessions, but was beaten to pole by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
“It was definitely a bit harder for us today,” Hamilton said. “We struggled working with the tyres, we were trying really hard to get the tyres to switch on, but fortunately we had a new set in Q3 and managed to get through.
“I’m happy with performance, and surprised to see us on the front row, but we will be trying as hard as we can tomorrow.”
Hamilton said he was not sure how McLaren’s tyre performance would stack up in race conditions.
“Fortunately I have got myself into a decent position,” he said. “Long runs seemed to be OK but now it’s hotter it will change things and it will be tough. We’ll try to do the best job we can and maximise all we can do. I am looking forward to it.”
Although he is within 13 points of championship leader Fernando Alonso in fourth in the standings, Hamilton has yet to win a race this year. He said he would be content to continue to gather points in the race if Red Bull and Ferrari proved quicker.
“Of course I want to win but these guys are phenomenally quick at the moment,” he said. “Not sure if we have the pace but we will wait and see tomorrow.”
Despite qualifying in third position, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso believes he has a chance to win the Canadian Grand Prix. Autosport.com has the news story.
Fernando Alonso is not ruling out a Ferrari victory in the Canadian Grand Prix after qualifying in third position on Saturday.
The Ferrari driver finished 0.367 seconds off pole position man Sebastian Vettel to equal his best qualifying result of the season.
Although Alonso conceded he would have to do a better job than Vettel and Lewis Hamilton to win on Sunday, he reckons anything could happen.
“You never know,” said Alonso. “Races this year, they are difficult to predict. What we think on Saturday afternoon normally is not what happens on Sunday. We will see.
“It would be nice to win here, but we know at the moment there are two guys quicker than us. They proved it today and tomorrow we need to do better if we want to win.”
The Spaniard, whose team has been making steady progress towards the front after a slow start to the season, said he had been delighted with how the weekend had gone, including the performance of the new parts introduced for the event.
“I am happy with the performance of the car,” he said. “It has been a very smooth weekend for us. The new parts worked as expected, Felipe [Massa] and me felt straightaway a good grip and a step in performance for the car.
“We repeat what we did in Barcelona and there we got an important podium and in Monaco we got a competitive car again and a good podium. Here, with long straights and chicanes we are also competitive.”
Team-mate Massa also secured a season-best grid position with sixth.
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen blames differential issue for his Canadian Grand Prix qualifying result. Autosport.com has the details.
Kimi Raikkonen blamed a problem with his Lotus’s differential for his disappointing showing in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Finn failed to make it into Q3 for the second time this season, finishing in 12th position.
The Lotus driver said a problem that hit him pn Friday had reappeared during Saturday’s session.
“We’ve got some issues with the diff. I think it’s a hydraulic problem,” said Raikkonen. “We had some problems yesterday and it seems to have come back so the diff doesn’t work exactly like it should and, when it’s tight like this, when the car is not handling exactly like you want, it’s difficult. But, we tried.”
Raikkonen is still hopeful he can have a good Sunday, the Finn confident he will be able to manage his tyres well during the race.
“We should be pretty OK with the tyres and hopefully we’ll get the car working 100 per cent. At least yesterday in the long runs we had no issues so we’ll see what happens.”
Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean will start from seventh position.
Kamui Kobayashi believes Sauber lost pace as the temperature rose on Canadian Grand Prix qualifying day, having narrowly missed out on a top-10 place on the Montreal grid.
The Japanese driver had been in the top 10 in both Friday sessions, but could only manage 11th in qualifying, lapping just 0.008 seconds shy of a Q3 spot.
“I think on Friday in free practice, when it was cooler, we looked more competitive than today,” said Kobayashi.
“The car’s balance was good yesterday and we didn’t change it. Also my fastest lap was fine, and there were no mistakes.
“I think this was pretty much what I could achieve today. Apparently the others improved in comparison to us.”
Kobayashi’s team-mate Sergio Perez was back in 15th, and blamed himself for flat-spotting his tyres.
“Having qualified only 15th is a big disappointment for me, as certainly a place in the top 10 would have been possible,” said Perez. “Unfortunately on the first lap of my last run with new super soft tyres I flat-spotted them when braking into Turn 8.
“The car was then vibrating a lot, which meant I could hardly see the braking points.
“It is obviously a difficult position to start from, but it is still my target to score points tomorrow.”
Source: Autosport.com
Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne has said that his final practice crash played an affect in qualifying. Autosport.com has the details.
Jean-Eric Vergne was left lamenting his crash during final practice after failing to make it into Q2 in qualifying in Canada.
The Toro Rosso driver failed to complete a flying lap in the morning session after sliding off track and damaging his car against the barriers.
With no Saturday running prior to qualifying, the Frenchman struggled for pace and was outqualified by the two Caterhams, finishing down in 20th position.
“My little mistake in FP3 cost me a lot,” said Vergne. “I didn’t get any running this morning and then this afternoon, I never really got a clean lap, encountering a lot of traffic which is therefore very disappointing.
“On top of that, my car was quite different today to yesterday, so it was not the easiest thing to adapt to it in just a couple of laps in Q1.
“Even if the traffic would not have made a huge difference to my position on the grid, some cleaner laps would have allowed me to improve my performance and get a better feel for the car with this different set-up.”
Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was happier with his performance after qualifying in 14th place, a result the Australian considered to be decent given Toro Rosso’s lack of pace in Montreal.
“This result is not too bad, considering the pace we showed so far this weekend,” he said. “Fourteenth was probably about the best we could have done as there is a three tenths gap to 13th place. I managed to outqualify some of our usual competitors, but 14th is not going to set the world on fire and we always want to do better.
“However, we can be satisfied with the way we improved the car over the two days, taking a step forward and hopefully we can make further progress tomorrow.”
Pedro de la Rosa was delighted with his performance in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix after one of his strongest showings of the 2012 Formula 1 season.
De la Rosa outqualified both Marussias for the first time this year, putting his HRT in 21st position. The Spanish driver finished nearly half a second ahead of Timo Glock. De la Rosa was also eight tenths of a second faster than his team-mate Narain Karthikeyan.
The Spaniard believes HRT’s top speed will allow him to fight properly in Sunday’s race.
“I’m very happy, for myself and the entire team,” he said. “In Monaco we completed a good qualifying and here it was even better. The objective was to achieve our fastest lap and we did it. A 1m17.4s is good, but we could have done better on the last set of tyres but I wasn’t able to improve on my previous lap.
“We’ve been quick the whole weekend, it wasn’t a coincidence and we should do well tomorrow. With the soft tyres we’re very consistent and, what’s most important is that we’re very quick on straights so we have a chance to overtake others and it will be difficult to overtake us.
“Ahead of tomorrow’s race I think we can fight with anyone because our car has good speed and is stable when braking, so we aim to make the most out of this.”
Karthikeyan admitted he needs to raise his game in qualifying after finishing at the bottom of the times again.
“It was a messy qualifying for me,” he said. “On the first set of tyres I encountered a lot of traffic and on my quickest lap I got all the sectors right and I made a mistake coming into the last corner which cost me six tenths.
“My qualifying has been weak this year and I need to improve this. But we have a good pace and tomorrow we will fight with our main rivals to try and get a good result.”
Source: Autosport.com
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa has commented that the team must have a ‘perfect’ Canadian Grand Prix in order to make progress. Autosport.com has the story.
Felipe Massa says his Ferrari team will have to get everything right in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix in order to make progress from sixth on the grid.
But the Brazilian, who secured his best qualifying showing of the year so far, is optimistic he can fight for higher positions after having proved competitive over long runs on Friday.
He admitted, however, that the higher track temperatures expected for Sunday are a concern.
“The race tomorrow will not be easy, it will be very competitive, so we need to get everything right,” said Massa.
“We did a very good long run yesterday, so I think that can be positive for tomorrow. The only thing is that the race maybe will be different compared to yesterday because yesterday was very cool.
“Tomorrow will be very hot, even hotter than today. We know how these tyres behave, how these tyres feel the temperature. And we need to be sure we have the right strategy.”
Massa said he remains confident of having a strong race if Ferrari can get its tyre strategy perfect.
“I’m confident, definitely. We need to understand things to get the right strategy. It’s not very easy, but I hope we can do everything perfect to fight even higher than where I’m starting.”
Jenson Button reckons it was a mistake to run at all in Q3 of Canadian Grand Prix qualifying, as he will now have to start the Montreal race on slightly worn soft tyres.
The McLaren driver used all his super softs just to reach the top 10 session, and was the only man to run softs in Q3, leaving him 10th on the grid.
“We wanted to start the race on the prime tyre. To be fair, looking at it now, we shouldn’t have actually bothered running it, because it was going to be tricky to beat anyone on it,” said Button.
“We were going to be P10 on the option tyre and thought we’d give it a go on the prime and start the race on a prime, but maybe we shouldn’t have put five laps on it.”
Button was pessimistic about his chances of being able to use his alternate tyre choice to make progress on Sunday.
“I don’t really think there are any risks with strategy. Especially here,” he said. “It’s going to be a one or a two-stop, and I think most people will be two stopping.
“Obviously I’ll be starting on a different tyre to the front nine, but I’ll be starting on the same tyre as everyone behind me. At least we’re at the front of that pack, I suppose.”
He also doubts that he will be able to do a great deal of overtaking.
“The scary bit is at the moment I don’t feel that good under braking, so it’s going to be difficult to make any manoeuvres tomorrow, I feel,” Button conceded.
The Briton lost a large amount of Friday practice mileage to an oil leak and related gearbox issue, but said Saturday’s result was more a continuation of his recent qualifying strife than a consequent of practice issues.
“I don’t even know if it would have been any better if we’d had all of Friday, looking at the previous two [races]…” he said.
Button admitted that he feels no closer to solving the qualifying issues that have now slowed him on Saturday for three successive races.
“I haven’t got a clue, and I’d like to know because it would make life a lot easier,” Button replied when asked if he knew what was wrong with his qualifying form.
“You don’t have three bad qualifying sessions and understand what’s going wrong.
“The first three qualifying sessions of the year were good – I had two seconds and a fourth. Now suddenly I’m only just inside the top 10. Don’t know… But hopefully we’ll solve it soon.”
Source: Autosport.com