By: Charles Bradley, Editor in Chief
MOTORSPORTS.COM
Yesterday at 6:07pm
Lewis Hamilton will start the Canadian Grand Prix from pole position after topping qualifying in Montreal on Saturday.
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 44th 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 theRed Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo. Sergio Perez qualified 10th 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 11th.
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 12th 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 15th, 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 18th and 19th, separated by 0.02s, but will move up to 17th 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 | - |
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