Canadian GP: Hamilton takes pole, Vettel out in Q1

With two sets of fresh supersofts at the Mercedes drivers' disposal, Hamilton’s first try in Q3 was a 1m14.393s, compared to Nico Rosberg’s 1m14.702s – who complained he “didn’t have any grip on the rear” and was told it was his “worst set of tyres”.

But neither Mercedes improved their times on their second runs, giving Hamilton his 44^th career F1 pole. “What a rubbish end to the qualifying,” moaned Rosberg over the radio.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen set 1m15.126s on his first run, which was good for third at the time, with Romain Grosjean fourth and Lotus teammate Pastor Maldonado just shading Valtteri Bottas by 0.04s early on.

Raikkonen lowered his time to 1m15.014s, as Bottas moved up to fourth with 1m15.102s on their second runs.

Maldonado and Grosjean then almost banged wheels in the pitlane, having been released simultaneously. Grosjean won the war, however, with a 1m15.194s to Maldonado’s 1m15.329s.

Nico Hulkenberg will start seventh for Force India, ahead of the Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo. Sergio Perez qualified 10^th in the second Force India.

The story of Q2

Hamilton topped Q2 by 0.012s, with 1m14.661s to Rosberg’s 1m14.673s, and Grosjean third from Raikkonen and Bottas.

Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr just missed the top-10 cut to Daniel Ricciardo by 0.036s, and will start 11^th.

Max Verstappen qualified 12th but will start last due to his 15-place grid penalty for his crash with Romain Grosjean in Monaco and taking a fifth Renault engine.

Behind Sainz, Marcus Ericsson will start 12^th ahead of Fernando Alonso’s McLaren.

Sauber did a great job to fix Felipe Nasr’s car after his huge crash on the backstraight while warming his tyres in FP3. He escaped Q1 but was slowest in Q2.

Big-name casualties in Q1

Only four cars were knocked out in Q1, as Jenson Button missed qualifying completely due to an energy-recovery system failure that damaged his McLaren’s Honda’s power unit beyond repair in the morning’s free practice session.

Despite this, two of those knocked out were totally unexpected: Both Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Williams’s Felipe Massa were casualties due to energy-recovery system failures.

Vettel will start 15^th, one place ahead of Massa. “We have a quick car, we should be able to make up some ground,” Vettel rued.

The Manors of Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens were 18^th and 19^th, separated by 0.02s, but will move up to 17^th and 18th.

Romain Grosjean topped the session on supersoft tyres with a 1m15.833s.

Rosberg topped Q1 on a 1m15.893s on the soft tyres in Q1, 0.002s faster than Hamilton. Raikkonen, in contrast, did a 1m16.259s.

Maldonado spun at Turn 1 in Q1, but rejoined without further drama.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1'14.393
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1'14.702	0.309
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1'15.014	0.621
4	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1'15.102	0.709
5	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1'15.194	0.801
6	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1'15.329	0.936
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1'15.614	1.221
8	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1'16.079	1.686
9	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1'16.114	1.721
10	Sergio Perez	Force India	1'16.338	1.945
11	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1'16.042	1.649
12	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1'16.262	1.869
13	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1'16.276	1.883
14	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1'16.620	2.227
15	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1'17.344	2.951
16	Felipe Massa	Williams	1'17.886	3.493
17	Roberto Merhi	Marussia	1'19.133	4.740
18	Will Stevens	Marussia	1'19.157	4.764
19	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1'16.245	1.852
20	Jenson Button	McLaren		-