Lewis Hamilton scored his first pole position of the season with a thrilling qualifying session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. In doing so the 2008 world champion maintains his excellent qualifying form at this circuit and this result means he has ended Red Bull Racing’s dominance in qualifying with a superb lap in the McLaren.
The battle for pole was a tight conflict between Hamilton, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso. Each of the drivers traded the top spot running different tyre compounds but it was Lewis who took the honours in the end with a time of one minute, 15.105 seconds. Moments later Lewis had to stop his McLaren as it was nearly out of fuel!
Championship leader Mark Webber will start the Canadian Grand Prix in second while team-mate Sebastian Vettel managed to record a decent lap time to take third after initially struggling in Q3. The young German had to abandon a lap when he went straight over the final chicane but held it together in the final run.
Fernando Alonso starts fourth for the Scuderia, ahead of Jenson Button while Tonio Liuzzi took a fantastic sixth for Force India. A great achievement for the Italian and the team.
Sharing row four is Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica, with Adrian Sutil and Nico Rosbeg completing the top ten.
The shock of the qualifying session was Michael Schumacher’s failure to get through into Q3. The Mercedes driver was only four-tenths adrift of team-mate Rosberg, but that translated to six positions in Q2, as Schumacher was edged outside the top ten in the final seconds and then made a mistake at the final chicane when trying to respond.
As the Williams of Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, the pair improved to take row six, forcing Schumacher down to P13. The seven-time world champion will not be pleased with this low grid position.
The same can be said to the Sauber team. Both Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi was unable to find decent pace and were knocked out as early as Q1. The Japanese even had to fend off the flying Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, who was only two-tenths slower in the end as he beat team-mate Jarno Trulli by four-tenths in the new team pack battle.
Qualifying times from Montreal:
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.105
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:15.373
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:15.420
4. Alonso Ferrari 1:15.435
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.520
6. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:15.648
7. Massa Ferrari 1:15.688
8. Kubica Renault 1:15.715
9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:15.881
10. Rosberg Mercedes 1:16.071
11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:16.434
12. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:16.438
13. Schumacher Mercedes 1:16.492
14. Petrov Renault 1:16.844
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.928
16. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:17.029
17. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:17.384
18. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:18.019
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.237
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.698
21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:18.941
22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:19.484
23. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:19.675
24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:27.757
The top three drivers’ views on the qualifying session from Montreal. As taken from Autosport.com.
Lewis Hamilton said he was overwhelmed after securing his first pole position of the year ahead of tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver also put an end to Red Bull Racing’s run of poles, the Milton Keynes team having started from the top spot in the first seven races of the season.
Hamilton’s pole was also the third in a row in Canada, the Briton having started first in all his three races in Montreal.
“It has been a great day, a great start to the weekend, overwhelming for me,” said Hamilton.
“There’s so many memories coming back here. When they told me on the radio I had pole it reminded me of my first pole position here and my first win here in 2007. It’s a special day.
“I am proud of my guys. I damaged my car a bit in practice and they fixed it – they are so professional.”
Hamilton, winner of the previous race in Turkey, had been far from happy with his day yesterday, but managed to turn things around for qualifying.
The former world champion admitted, however, that the race could be completely different tomorrow.
“The key is that you need to take each day at the time,” he added. “We wanted to get as far up the front as possible. For sure when testing, the Option tyre was not the best and it goes off quite quickly.
“I think you might see a completely different race unfold tomorrow, with safety cars to be expected. You have to be fortunate of when they do or don’t come out. The track may improve and the Option might end up being the best one. We will keep our heads down.”
Red Bull duo Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel are confident that their team’s choice of the harder Bridgstones for Q3 and the start of the Canadian Grand Prix will prove to be correct.
The squad lost its 100 per cent pole record for the season when Lewis Hamilton took the top spot for McLaren in Montreal today, but the Briton used the softer tyres, which Red Bull felt had been too fragile in practice to risk using for the opening stint.
“We thought we could still do a pretty good job in qualifying on the harder tyre,” said Webber. “We knew still had a crack at the front row. McLaren is on the option tyre, it is a long race tomorrow and we are planning to do the best job we can.
“We think it is something that will be beneficial to us. With the odd safety car here and there, there are many ways this race can unfold. We stuck to our guns, Seb and I are in the top three again.”
Vettel was languishing near the foot of the top ten until his final run in Q3, and admitted it had been harder to get the medium tyres up to speed.
“It was a pretty entertaining last session,” he said. “We went out on the hard tyres, they take a while to come in, I didn’t get a lap in until the last lap. It was not perfect timing, the lap wasn’t very clean, so I’m happy I still made it to third.
“Let’s see what we can do, I’m happy both of us made it with the prime tyres, especially with the soft tyre being so difficult to make last for a few laps.”
Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton has commented that his choice of running the soft Bridgestone tyre would not be a factor in the race despite a major issue of graining as several drivers discovered during the practice sessions. Read the Autosport.com story below for Hamilton’s view:
Lewis Hamilton defended his McLaren team’s tyre choice after grabbing pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Briton secured the top spot after beating Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel who, unlike Hamilton, chose the harder tyre compound to start the race with.
Hamilton will have to start with the softer tyre, which has struggled to last during practice sessions this weekend.
Despite that, Hamilton said his strategy was not a gamble.
“I don’t think so. I don’t feel so,” he said when asked if his tyre choice was a gamble. “Every race you are taking gambles I don’t think we have gone into it feeling we should gamble this.
“Both tyres were very, very close. I chose to go with the Option tyres, we know the Option tyre doesn’t last as long as the Prime, but the variation should not be as bad as tomorrow when there was a dirty circuit.
“Of course if a safety car comes around it could help, but we will see how long they last and do the best job we can. You never know what strategies are tomorrow and it will be interesting to see everyone’s strategies.”
Hamilton also claimed his team knew Red Bull would choose the Prime tyres.
“We knew that was their plan, so it was clear from Q1 they had done something different,” he added. “It was quite clear to us. We just continued with the choice we had of tyres for tomorrow.
“It is definitely interesting to see thew two different strategies, interesting to see how they pan out tomorrow with all the safety cars. I feel we are in the best position we can possibly be.”
And he said he was not concerned about having to stop earlier than the Red Bulls.
“I am not worried right now, I am enjoying the fact that we got pole position,” he said. “We will look at it and analyse the different situations we can find ourselves in tomorrow. The best way is not to panic and do the best job we can.”
After qualifying in fourth for Ferrari, the double world champion Fernando Alonso expects the Canadian Grand Prix to be unpredictable due to the different tyres. Autosport.com has details.
Fernando Alonso says it is hard to predict the outcome of the Canadian Grand Prix due to the different strategies chosen by the top drivers.
Ferrari driver Alonso, as well as pole-setter Lewis Hamilton, will start the race with the softer tyre compound, while Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, second and third today, have opted for the harder tyres.
Alonso, starting from fourth, believes the unusual situation could make for an exciting race.
“Red Bull has qualified with the harder tyres, which is something we haven’t had all year,” Alonso told Spanish reporters. “Hamilton and I start with the softer ones so we’ll be having the opposite strategy and anything can happen in a race like that.
“For the first time I think it’s not going to be a race where we start and we follow each other, we all stop over two or three laps and then the race finishes with those positions. There is going to be a bit more movement and hopefully it will be fun.”
The Ferrari driver admitted he was pleased with his performance after finishing right behind the Red Bulls, and is now eyeing a podium finish.
“We are happy with our qualifying, and with how the car has worked this weekend,” he said. “We’ve been more or less in the top three all the time.
“So we have a good feeling towards tomorrow and if someone had told us we would finish half a tenth off Red Bull in qualifying on Thursday, we’d have taken that. So it’s been better than expected and tomorrow hopefully we can be on the podium.”
Speaking about his chances of a podium finish, he added: “It’s always possible starting among the top four or five. It’s a possibility. We have the start, the strategy and a very demanding circuit.
“Starting from the top five the podium is always possible here in Canada because just by staying on track something is going to happen to the cars in front and you will benefit.”
Mercedes Grand Prix driver Michael Schumacher could only manage P13 and yet he was baffled by his car’s handling around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Autosport.com has the story.
Michael Schumacher admitted he was at a loss to explain his struggles during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The German finished down in 13th position after being unable to make it to Q3, the seven-time champion unhappy with his car’s handling.
It was the first time that Schumacher has been outqualified by his team-mate in Canada.
He said he found it hard to understand the reasons for his problems.
“I am obviously disappointed after today’s qualifying,” said Schumacher. “We simply did not have the balance or grip and overall we had a lot of problems with braking and handling. The car was just not performing as we expected.
“We had similar issues yesterday afternoon and we made some changes after second practice. This morning, the changes seemed to have made sense as our position was reasonable but this afternoon, I was facing similar issues again.
“It’s difficult to understand the reasons at the moment but we will look deeply into it now and find a good strategy for the race tomorrow.”
Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg completed a disappointing day for the German squad after finishing as 10th quickest.
“That wasn’t a great qualifying session for us today,” he said. “We have a good car here this weekend but unfortunately we couldn’t get the tyres to work properly this afternoon. That was the big issue for us today. The harder tyre wasn’t too bad in Q1 but we struggled with the option later on and there was just no more lap time to be had.
“It is very disappointing to be starting in tenth place but anything can happen in the race so we can only look forward and take advantage where possible tomorrow.”
This was not the ideal result for the Sauber team with Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi in P17 and P18 respectively. The drivers express their surprise as Autosport.com has the details.
The Sauber drivers said they simply could not get their tyres to work as they struggled in Montreal qualifying, and admitted they had not expected the results to be quite so bad.
Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi will share row nine tomorrow, with the latter only just managing to beat Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus.
“We are having a hard weekend here,” Kobayashi admitted. “Our overall performance is not where we were in Turkey.
“I had big problems with warming up the tyres. I just didn’t get them to work and this made it impossible to exploit any of the car’s potential. The fact I had traffic on my last lap didn’t help either.
“I knew today’s qualifying would be difficult, but still didn’t expect it to be that bad.”
De la Rosa reckons the switch to low downforce for Montreal has hampered Sauber.
“We ran the car for the first time on a significantly lower downforce level and it doesn’t really suit us,” he said. “We are sliding all over the place, and that’s why the tyres don’t work. There is no grip at all and on top of that I had difficulties heating up the brakes.
“We have to see what we can do in tomorrow’s race in terms of tyre strategy, and be prepared to benefit from possible safety car situations.”
As for the Lotus team, Heikki Kovalainen aims to beat the Sauber team in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix. The Finn threatened to beat one of the Sauber during qualifying only for Kobayashi to improve with a small margin of two-tenths of a second. Autosport.com has the story.
Heikki Kovalainen admitted he was disappointed not to stay ahead of Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi in Canadian Grand Prix qualifying – but is optimistic that he can have a go at beating the Saubers in tomorrow’s race.
The Lotus star briefly got up to 18th in Q1, in front of the Sauber, before Kobayashi improved and pipped him by 0.2 seconds.
Kovalainen said being so close to beating an established team had inspired him to dig even deeper.
“I’ve felt like I’ve done a few good qualifying laps this year, but this one was really good,” he said. “I’ve had a decent balance all weekend, and yesterday I didn’t have any problems, so I could find a good set-up and had the confidence to push.
“We just need to find a little bit more to really take the fight to the guys in front, but tomorrow I think we can race them, I think we can have a go.
“I thought I had Kamui for a while, but he just got in front at the end, but you always find a little bit more when you think you can get the guy ahead and that shows how far we’ve come. Today shows we’re making progress all the time – we were only two tenths away from Sauber today which is just great for the whole team.”
UPDATE: Lewis Hamilton was fined and reprimanded by the Canadian Grand Prix stewards following qualifying for the Montreal event.
Right after securing pole position, Hamilton was instructed by his McLaren team to stop the car on track as he was nearly out of fuel and some of it was still needed for the sample for the post-qualifying inspection.
Hamilton stopped his engine but kept his car moving while he seated on top of it as he celebrated his first pole of the year. He then got off the car and started pushing it.
The stewards deemed Hamilton had exceeded the maximum time set to return to the pits after the end of qualifying, and the Briton was fined USD10,000 and given a reprimand.
Source: Autosport.com
The McLaren team has defended the call made by Lewis Hamilton in turning off his Mercedes engine just after securing pole position. The 2008 world champion was fined $10,000 US Dollars and given a reprimand but at least he kept his pole position. Autosport.com has more details and can be read below:
McLaren has defended telling Lewis Hamilton to turn his engine off on the slowing down lap after Canadian Grand Prix qualifying – even though its actions earned it a fine and have led to suggestions from rival teams about it being unfair.
Teams have to ensure that there is one litre of fuel left in the car after qualifying for the FIA to be able to take a sample.
But, with Hamilton having less fuel that originally intended owing to a miscommunication during qualifying, the team realised after he had set pole position that if he returned to the pits he could run short.
The team told him to stop his car which, although not a breach of the rules, did go against a directive from the race director about a maximum time for returning to the pits. McLaren was reprimanded and fined 10,000 USD – but avoided any grid penalty.
Although rival team principal Ross Brawn suggested that getting away with just a fine ‘sounded cheap’, McLaren insists that its priority was to ensure it did not breach the fuel regulations.
“We have complied with the regulations,” said team principal Martin Whitmarsh. “We didn’t set out to do this, and it is not Lewis’ fault.
“A mistake was made, and we had a choice. We could have got back to the garage but having done so we would have been short of fuel for the sample, so we chose the decision that the regulations require us to provide the sample. We felt that was the dominant requirement rather than the FIA memo, which isn’t a regulation and just talks about the lap time that comes back.
“There is nothing in the regulations that says you have to come back after qualifying to the garage If you break down, if the wheel had fallen off, then those things happen.”
Whitmarsh played down talk that the fact McLaren had got away with just a fine could set a precedent for other teams to start running marginal on fuel in future events.
“I think they would run the risk of it being decided that it was systematic, and you then run the risk of what are the opinion of the stewards on the day. I don’t think it will happen en masse.”
McLaren confirmed that the FIA was able to extract enough fuel from Hamilton’s car to be able to evaluate a sample.