Hamilton snatches the Montreal pole

Hamilton snatches the Montreal pole

Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position for the 70-lap Canadian Grand Prix in what was a thrilling shootout for the top grid position that went right down to wire at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Robert Kubica looked to have got the job done as he flashed across the line right at the end of the session with a best lap of 1:18.498s, eclipsing Hamilton’s provisional pole time. Hamilton however had gone back out just in case his time was beaten and responded in style as he lapped the 4.361km circuit in 1:17.886s to take the pole by just over six-tenths of a second, a huge margin. The result marks Hamilton’s eighth career pole at the circuit he claimed his first 12 months ago.

Robert Kubica put in a tremendous performance again for the BMW Sauber team to take a front row start in Canada. The team has one objective for this season and that is to claim its first win. With Kubica on form, that objective could become reality.

Ferrari failed to shine in qualifying with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa lining up third and sixth. Raikkonen’s best lap was over eight-tenths off the ultimate pace while Massa was over a second off.

Fernando Alonso put in a great performance to line up on the second row of the grid with Kimi Raikkonen. The Renault team had struggled in practice but the former champion exceeded expectations with fourth on the grid.

Team-mate Nelson Piquet meanwhile starts 15th in the second R28 and needs a good race to the points on Sunday afternoon.

Nico Rosberg showed that his pace in the morning practice session was no fluke as he lines up fifth in his Williams Toyota with team-mate Kazuki Nakajima 12th. It was a disappointing session from Massa in sixth position while Heikki Kovalainen will be wondering why he is a massive 1.2 seconds slower than McLaren team-mate Hamilton. Seventh position on the grid was a poor performance from the Finn.

Another driver who disappointed was Nick Heidfeld. The BMW Sauber driver managed to make it into the top ten, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that he is not able to get the best out of the F1.08 package, especially in qualifying. Heidfeld lines up eighth.

Rubens Barrichello had his best qualifying run of the season as he made it into the top ten for the first time this year. The Brazilian veteran ran well in practice and carried the momentum into qualifying and he starts ninth on a day team-mate Jenson Button was slowest of all thanks to a gearbox problem on his RA108.

Mark Webber had just set the fourth fastest time in the second round of qualifying but on his very next lap lost control of his Red Bull Renault and spun into the unforgiving concrete wall exiting turn seven. Webber was unable to take part in the pole position shoot out after damaging the right hand side suspension on the RB4 and therefore lines up in tenth position.

Timo Glock starts 11th in the leading Toyota ahead of Nakajima and David Coulthard in the second Red Bull. It was not a good session from the elder statesman of Formula One as he was some seven-tenths off the pace of team-mate Webber as he chases his first championship point of the season.

Jarno Trulli added another couple of spins to his impressive Canadian tally today and put in a poor run to 14th in the second Toyota ahead of Piquet. Over at Toro Rosso Sebastien Bourdais set the 16th best time in his repaired STR3 but will take a five position penalty for having a new gearbox fitted. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel did not even take part in qualifying as the team build up the spare car overnight following his practice crash. Vettel will start from the pit lane.

Adrian Sutil surprisingly got the better of Force India team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella with the 17th fastest time while Button was over three seconds off the pace at the back as his gearbox problems prevented him from setting a representative time.

The 70-lap Grand Prix promises a great deal as there is a better than evens chance of rain the forecasts are predicting while certain sections of the circuit are already starting to break up. Saturday is Hamilton’s day and Sunday is another day.

f1-live.com