Lewis Hamilton took the pole again at the Canadian Grand Prix, with a lap of 1:17.886 that gave the 23-year-old Englishman his second pole of the season and the eighth top qualifying spot of his career.
He had also posted the fastest lap in Q3 until Polish rival Robert Kubica clocked a 1 minute 18.498 seconds to take provisional pole for BMW Sauder with just seconds of qualifying to go.
Hamilton, however, was still out on track and turned in a flying hot lap of 1 min 17.886 secs to snatch pole position by more than half a second.
It was a typical piece of attacking driving by the McLaren man who is chasing back-to-back grand prix victories after winning the Monaco GP last month.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, the reigning world champion, will start from third on the grid alongside Fernando Alonso in the Renault.
“This morning was tricky for everyone, with the track quite slippery but we remained positive and kept car the same. Then in qualifying I felt at home. The team did a great job in the early stages of each qualifying session. The first lap was a shocker as I nearly went wide at turn one, the last one was good - similar to last year. I had a feeling that Kimi was hunting me down so he would have beaten my time, so I knew I had to stick it up there. I found six or seven tenths on that lap which is incredible.” said Lewis.
Alonso popped up into a superb second place with five minutes remaining, demoting the Ferraris down to third and fourth, with Massa ahead of Raikkonen, whilst Hamilton just kept going quicker and quicker, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that the track was falling apart beneath him.
Raikkonen and Kubica were both looking strong on their final efforts, and whilst the former’s time was ultimately almost a second adrift, as if out of nowhere Kubica grabbed the lead.
The final surprise was yet to play out, however, as Hamilton gave all of his rivals something to think about with a mesmerising last lap to wrap up pole.
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