GP – Qualifying: Ease and Feat for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton was faster than the Ferraris and secured pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix after dominating the qualifying session.

The McLaren driver, whose first F1 victory was exactly a year ago in Montreal, finished on top in Q1 and Q2 before delivering a Q3 session worthy of the greats.

He was briefly overtaken by Robert Kubica on the scoreboard but improved on his second fast lap by beating the BMW by more than 0.6 seconds.

Kubica will therefore be on the front row alongside the Briton after his horrific crash on the track twelve months ago.

Ferrari could do no better than a third and sixth place. Kimi Räikkönen was almost a second slower than Hamilton but is still ahead of his teammate Felipe Massa, who was on pole position at the last two Grand Prix. He was pushed back to the third row because Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg are 4th and 5th respectively.

Hamilton’s teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, can do no better than seventh place with the second McLaren. The Finn will have Nick Heidfeld beside him.

Rubens Barrichello clinches a beautiful ninth place for Honda after reaching Q3 for the first time this season.

By managing to qualify for Q3 with an excellent fourth place in Q2, Mark Webber then hit the wall at turn 7.

The Red Bull was damaged at the front right suspension and couldn’t participate in Q3. It will start on the grid from 10th place, three spots ahead of his teammate David Coulthard.

For the first time this year, Jarno Trulli failed to reach Q3. The Italian ends up in a frustrating 14th place. His difficulties mean he was eventually beaten by his Toyota teammate, Timo Glock, for the first time. The German took 11th place, after being edged out of the top ten by a whisker in Q2.

Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) is outside the top ten by 0.042 seconds and had to settle for 12th position on the grid. Nelson Piquet managed to qualify for Q2 but, ultimately, did no better than 15th place.