World championship leader Sebastian Vettel secured his sixth pole position of the season, fending off the Scuderia drivers to the top spot at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Vettel’s lap time of one minute, 13.014 seconds placed him ahead of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. This was the strongest qualifying performance by Ferrari so far.
His Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber had to settle for a position on the second row of the grid after securing fourth.
Despite being tipped as one of the favourites to fight for pole and race victory in Canada, McLaren endured a rather low-key day, with last year’s winner Lewis Hamilton in fifth position while team-mate Jenson Button was seventh, behind Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg.
As for Michael Schumacher, he will start the Canadian Grand Prix in eighth position.
Both Renaults made it into the top-ten this round, with Nick Heidfeld qualifying in ninth position ahead of Vitaly Petrov.
It was another strong qualifying performance from Paul di Resta, who secured P11 for Force India. This is impressive considering team-mate Adrian Sutil could only managed P14.
Pastor Maldonado was another Formula One rookie keen to make an impact in the sport with the Venezuelan driver outqualifying the more experience Rubens Barrichello by a margin of four grid positions. The Williams drivers will start in P12 and P16 respectively.
Following Sergio Perez’s qualifying crash in Monaco, Pedro de la Rosa will represent the Sauber team in Canada. The reserve driver put in a decent performance despite his lack of running on track, making it to Q2 and finishing around three tenths off team-mate Kobayashi in P17.
Jarno Trulli outqualified Lotus team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, as both drivers were again out in Q1. They were joined by Tonio Liuzzi in the Hispania, who managed to outpace both Virgin Racing, with Timo Glock in P22 and Jerome D’Ambrosio last behind Narain Karthikeyan.
As for D’Ambrosio, the Belgian failed to qualify for the race after finishing nearly half a second off the 107 per cent time. But he will be allowed to take part, as the Virgin Racing driver is fast enough when compared to his lap times set in the opening practice session.
Qualifying times from Montreal:
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m13.014s
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m13.199s
3. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m13.217s
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m13.429s
5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m13.565s
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m13.814s
7. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m13.838s
8. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m13.864s
9. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m14.062s
10. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m14.085s
11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m14.752s
12. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m15.043s
13. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m15.285s
14. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m15.287s
15. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m15.334s
16. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m15.361s
17. Pedro de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1m15.587s
18. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m16.294s
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m16.745s
20. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m16.786s
21. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m18.424s
22. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m18.537s
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m18.574s
24. Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m19.414s
107 per cent time: 1m18.989