Lewis Hamilton is on target by repeating his maiden victory at the Canadian Grand Prix after taking a stunning pole position at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The McLaren driver was easily the fastest around the race track after topping the time sheets in both session one and two of qualifying. His pole position lap of one minute, 17. 886 seconds was over half a second quicker than his nearest rival, the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica. It was Hamilton’s eighth career pole, his second this season.
Sharing the front row is Kubica. It was a remarkable performance from the Polish driver, especially after his horrific crash twelve months ago. Robert would have shocked the Formula One paddock with his late charge for pole position, but second is still a great achievement for the team and driver.
Race favourites Ferrari could only manage third and sixth. World champion Kimi Raikkonen struggled for grip on a track that was breaking up and the Finn will start the race in third, nearly a second adrift from championship rival Hamilton.
Team-mate Felipe Massa was unable to continue his impressive qualifying form and will line up in sixth. Between the red cars are double world Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Nico Rosberg (Williams), fourth and fifth respectively.
Hamilton’s McLaren colleague Heikki Kovalainen lines up in seventh with Nick Heidfeld – again out-qualified by team-mate Kubica – in eighth.
Honda’s Rubens Barrichello took ninth spot while Mark Webber was unable to take part in the final part of qualifying after damaging his car at the end of the previous session.
The Red Bull driver has expressed his concerns to the race organisers about the state of the circuit and there are question marks whether the Grand Prix will take place due to the deteriorating nature of the track’s surface.
Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix could well be very unpredictable, even if the outside chance of rain doesn’t materialise.
Qualifying times from Montreal:
1. HAMILTON McLaren 1:17.886
2. KUBICA BMW 1:18.498
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:18.735
4. ALONSO Renault 1:18.746
5. ROSBERG Williams 1:18.844
6. MASSA Ferrari 1:19.048
7. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1:19.089
8. HEIDFELD BMW 1:19.633
9. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:20.848
10. WEBBER Red Bull 1:17.523
11. GLOCK Toyota 1:18.031
12. NAKAJIMA Williams 1:18.062
13. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:18.238
14. TRULLI Toyota 1:18.327
15. PIQUET Renault 1:18.393
16. SUTIL Force India 1:19.108
17. FISICHELLA Force India 1:19.165
18. BUTTON Honda 1:23.565
19. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1:18.916*
20. VETTEL Toro Rosso No time
*Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change
oh wow massa in 6. I managed to miss it. looks like its setup for a cracking race again. Hamilton is doing a better job of securing his position this season. Also I’m quite impressed with Kubica he is slowly getting more consistent.
Funnily nobody remember Button since Hamilton came on the scene, 18th place sheesh.
Was an impressive drive by Kubica. Don’t really like Hamilton though as he tried to weasel his way out of responsibility when the press talked to him, needs to lose that kind of attitude. I mean normal drivers on the road face prosecution for going through a red light so why shouldn’t Hamilton for ignoring one even if it was on a race track.