Lewis Hamilton has beaten teammate Nico Rosberg to pole position by 0.062 seconds for the Canadian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel was a further tenth-and-a-half away in third position as Ferrari again seemed to lack qualifying pace.
After topping two of the three practice sessions, Hamilton registered a lap on a new set of the ultra-soft tyre that was to remain unbeaten during the final session of qualifying. A 1:12.812 proved to be too much to ask for Rosberg, as the German crossed the line moments after his teammate and finished a fraction off the pace.
Daniel Ricciardo finished two-tenths clear from his Red Bull Racing teammate Max Verstappen in fourth position, while Kimi Räikkönen was half a second slower than his teammate in sixth position.
Valtteri Bottas out-qualified Felipe Massa for the sixth time this season as the pair finished in seventh and eighth position respectively, while Nico Hülkenberg was ninth for Force India a further tenth of a second behind.
Fernando Alonso narrowly made it into Q3, edging out Sergio Pérez by 0.057 seconds and his teammate Jenson Button by one-tenth of a second. He’ll start from tenth position for tomorrow’s race.
Daniil Kvyat attempted to improve on his time after the chequered flag, although he failed to maximise the potential the Toro Rosso has and will line up sixteenth on the grid tomorrow after his three-place grid penalty for his accident with Kevin Magnussen in Monaco.
Carlos Sainz’s qualifying ended prematurely in Q2 when the Spaniard got it wrong into the final chicane and crashed into the ‘Wall of Champions’. His right rear tyre hit the wall, damaging the right rear suspension which making him a passenger as his Toro Rosso scraped along the barrier all the way until the start/finish line.
The incident brought out the third red flag of the weekend after Felipe Massa’s crash on Friday and Magnussen’s accident in FP3.
Jolyon Palmer qualified in seventeenth position and despite improving on his time on his last two runs he wasn’t able to get out of the Q1 drop zone. It made for a bad day for Renault as his teammate Magnussen was absent from the qualifying session after his heavy crash in final practice. The team was unable to get the car repaired in time so the Dane will start the race from pit lane after a gearbox change.
Pascal Wehrlein teased at the prospect of escaping elimination as he spent a lot of the session in fifteenth position, although he was demoted by Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat who improved late in the session. Wehrlein missed out on reaching Q2 by just 0.155 seconds.
Rio Haryanto was over three seconds off the pace and caused a bit of damage to his right rear tyre after the Indonesian took too much speed into the Turn 3 chicane and hit the barrier at the exit, sending his Manor into a spin and causing the tyre to detach from its rim.
| FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2016 – QUALIFYING RESULTS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 Qualifiers | Team / Entry | Result | Gap | |||
| 1. | Lewis Hamilton |  |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07 Hybrid | 1:12.812 | ||
| 2. | Nico Rosberg |  |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07 Hybrid | 1:12.874 | + 0.062 | |
| 3. | Sebastian Vettel | |
Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H | 1:12.990 | + 0.178 | |
| 4. | Daniel Ricciardo |  |
Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB12 | 1:13.166 | + 0.354 | |
| 5. | Max Verstappen |  |
Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB12 | 1:13.414 | + 0.602 | |
| 6. | Kimi Räikkönen |  |
Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H | 1:13.579 | + 0.767 | |
| 7. | Valtteri Bottas | |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW38 | 1:13.670 | + 0.858 | |
| 8. | Felipe Massa |  |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW38 | 1:13.769 | + 0.957 | |
| 9. | Nico Hülkenberg | |
Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM09 | 1:13.952 | + 1.140 | |
| 10. | Fernando Alonso |  |
McLaren-Honda MP4-31 | 1:14.338 | + 1.526 | |
| Q2 Qualifiers | Team / Entry | Result | Gap** | |||
| 11. | Sergio Pérez |  |
Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM09 | 1:14.317 | + 1.241 | |
| 12. | Jenson Button | |
McLaren-Honda MP4-31 | 1:14.437 | + 1.361 | |
| 13. | Daniil Kvyat |  |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR11 | 1:14.457 | + 1.381 | |
| 14. | Esteban Gutiérrez | |
Haas F1 Ferrari VF-16 | 1:14.571 | + 1.495 | |
| 15. | Romain Grosjean |  |
Haas F1 Ferrari VF-16 | 1:14.803 | + 1.727 | |
| 16. | Carlos Sainz Jr^ | |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR11 | 1:21.956 | + 8.880 | |
| Q1 Qualifiers | Team / Entry | Result | Gap* | |||
| 17. | Jolyon Palmer | |
Renault Sport F1 Team RS16 | 1:15.459 | + 1.745 | |
| 18. | Pascal Wehrlein | |
Manor Racing Mercedes MRT5 | 1:15.599 | + 1.885 | |
| 19. | Marcus Ericsson^ |  |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C35 | 1:15.635 | + 1.921 | |
| 20. | Felipe Nasr | |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C35 | 1:16.663 | + 2.949 | |
| 21. | Rio Haryanto |  |
Manor Racing Mercedes MRT5 | 1:17.052 | + 3.338 | |
| Outside 107%*** | Team / Entry | Result | Gap* | |||
| DNQ. | Kevin Magnussen |  |
Renault Sport F1 Team RS16 | no time | ||
* Denotes gap to fastest Q1 time of 1:13.714 posted by Nico Rosberg
** Denotes gap to fastest Q2 time of 1:13.076 posted by Lewis Hamilton
*** Q1 107% cut-off was 1:19.832
^Post-Qualifying Penalties:
-
Carlos Sainz Jr will serve a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
-
Kvyat and Ericsson each serve three-place grid penalties for causing collisions at the preceding Monaco Grand Prix.
Image via Mercedes AMG F1 Petronas
Josh Kruse
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