Lewis Hamilton is now six for seven in poles this year after a dominating performance during Q3 for tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton recovered from not being able to practice in FP3 to out qualify his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team teammate Nico Rosberg by nearly three tenths and the Mercedes duo were the only two drivers to record laps below 1m15s.
“The first lap was pretty good; it could have been better,” said Hamilton. “Then the next lap started off bad but then was good in the middle sector so… there was good time in the car and very, very happy with it. It was definitely tough out there with these tires, which are pretty hard and hard to switch on for everyone, but I enjoyed it.”
Kimi Raikonen was the lone Ferrari in Q3 and ended the day in 3rd place, his best qualifying performance since returning to the Maranello based outlet last season. Teammate Sebastian Vettel did not advance out of Q1 due to a horsepower problem caused by an issue with his energy recovery system.
“I was a bit disappointed for the team that one car had some issue but, you know, tomorrow is the race, usually we are a bit stronger there, so we have to make a good start and go from there and see what comes out,” said Raikonen. “But so far it has been pretty OK, obviously not ideal still, we want to be on the front but it’s still better.”
Valtteri Bottas held off Romain Grosjean to take 4th place and joining Grosjean along side on the 3rd row in 6th is Pastor Maldonado, his third start inside the top 10 this year. Nico Hulkenberg out qualified both Red Bulls and will start in 7th place followed by Daniil Kvyat in 8th, Daniel Ricciardo in 9th and Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.
Starting at the back of the grid will be Max Verstappen due to an engine change. On top of that, the Dutchman will serve a 10 second time penalty on his first pitstop due to only losing 8 positions. Jenson Button did not turn a lap in qualifying because of an MGU-H change and will start on the pitlane as well.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:14.393 |
| 2 | Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:14.702 |
| 3 | Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:15.014 |
| 4 | Bottas | Williams | 1:15.102 |
| 5 | Grosjean | Lotus | 1:15.194 |
| 6 | Maldonado | Lotus | 1:15.329 |
| 7 | Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:15.614 |
| 8 | Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:16.079 |
| 9 | Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:16.114 |
| 10 | Perez | Force India | 1:16.338 |
| 11 | Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:16.042 |
| 12 | Ericsson | Sauber | 1:16.262 |
| 13 | Alonso | McLaren | 1:16.276 |
| 14 | Nasr | Sauber | 1:16.620 |
| 15 | Massa | Williams | 1:17.886 |
| 16 | Merhi | Manor | 1:19.133 |
| 17 | Stevens | Manor | 1:19.157 |
| 18 | Vettel | Ferrari | 1:17.344* |
| 19 | Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:16.245** |
| 20 | Button | McLaren | No Time |
* indicates 5 place grid penalty, ** indicates 10 place grid penalty
Image: Mercedes AMG F1
