Hamilton Pole in Fantastic Canadian Qualifying

Patrick AllenJun 12, 2010

I have been waiting for this Grand Prix to come along since it was first announced that Canada was back on the calendar for 2010, and boy did it deliver!

That was unquestionably the best qualifying session of 2010 so far, and that isn’t just because someone other than a Red Bull is on pole!

I would also like to say that it was thoroughly brilliant to see all of the grandstands full and even hear the crowd shouting with joy at what was unfolding in front of their excited eyes.

Now Bernie, do we get that at the flashy new arenas? Simple answer? No!

The Canadian fans are amongst the most dedicated in the world and having an active audience made the show so much more exciting than simply watching cars lap past empty grand stands.

Anyway on with the qualifying!

Qualifying One

Now then, having just gone on about how great today was… I just have to say that unfortunately, qualifying one was as boring and pointless as any other Q1 so far in 2010.

Sure Kovalainen drove his ass off, but doesn’t he always? The racing was not close and frankly I expected either a Sauber or a Torro Rosso to join the new teams in the drop out zone.

Glock was out first and set a time of 1:21:587. He was joined by all of the new teams, but unsurprisingly, they all slipped down the board as the old guard took to the track.

With seven minutes left the results were as follows:

Hamilton, Alonso, Webber, Sutil, Vettel, Massa, Button, Liuzzi, Petrov, Schumacher, Barrichello, Hulkenberg, Rosberg, Alguersuari, Buemi, de la Rossa, Kobayashi, Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, Senna, di Grassi, Chandhok, Kubica

Fear not Kubica fans, strangely the last man to win in Canada left it a bit late to set any times. However, the Renault man soon added his name to the top 10 at the expense of Kobayashi.

That action pretty much decided who was out. Of course the new teams were finished and of the strugglers at Torro Rosso and Sauber it was Kobayashi that had no answer.

Q1 Top Three

Hamilton

Vettel

Alonso

Out

Kobayashi, Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, Senna, di Grassi, Chandhok

Qualifying Two

Ok, so this is when the action started to hot up. Hamilton and Alonso were fast throughout the session and although the Red Bulls were far from slow, an exciting battle was brewing.

At the other end of the spectrum, it looked as though the usual suspects were heading for the exit, but to spice things up a bit, Button and Schumacher struggled continuously.

Petrov led the field out for this one and set the first time of 1:23:526. However, the Russian had made a small mistake on his lap and so unsurprisingly slipped down the rankings quickly.

Yet again, the Red Bulls, Alonso, Hamilton and Kubica all looked fast.

The positions five minutes in were as follows:

Kubica, Alonso, Webber, Hamilton, Vettel, Sutil, Schumacher, Button, Massa, Barrichello, Alguersuari, Buemi, Liuzzi, Hulkenberg, Petrov, Rosberg, de la Rossa

Practically the second I finished copying down the times, Vettel stormed into pole, only adding to the closeness of the field. Vettel’s time on top was short lived though as Hamilton soon asserted himself as top dog.

However, the real excitement was coming from positions nine and 10, occupied by World Champion Jenson Button and seven time Champ Michael Schumacher!

With just one minute left, Luizzi sped across the line into P10 and relegated Schumacher. Seconds later Schumacher pushed Button into the drop out zone.

It was genuinely tense waiting to see if Button and Schumacher could stay in and if not who would fail to make it.

With just 12 seconds to go Button lifted himself to safety in P7. Meanwhile Massa was now in trouble at the bottom end of the top 10!

Schumacher’s silver arrow darted around the track but missed the target when the seven times winner of the Canadian GP missed the final chicane and crashed out of Q2!

This was a very strange mistake from Schumacher, but it was a great session.

Unquestionably, my driver of Q2 was Liuzzi. This poor bloke has been really criticised recently and today he did what all great F1 survivors need to do; he made an impression!

Q2 Top Three

Hamilton

Vettel

Alonso

Out

Barrichello, Hulkenberg, Schumacher, Petrov, Buemi, Alguersuari, de la Rossa

Qualifying Three

This was the closest final session I have seen in a long time and the tension was evident from the very beginning.

For the first time in my recent F1 memory, the pit lane light went green to an empty road. None of the cars had queued up to open the session.

After about a minutes wait, both McLarens took to the track. Button set the first time of 1:16:432, but he was blitzed by his team mate who was almost one second faster!

The Canadian GP has also given us our first "different strategy" scenario of 2010 as the Red Bulls opted for the hard tyres whilst their main competitors, McLaren, chose the softies.

It took ages to get 10 times up on the sheet but it was evident that Alonso, Webber, and Hamilton were going to give us a much wanted fight.

With just a few minutes left the positions were:

Hamilton, Webber, Alonso, Button, Kubica, Vettel, Massa, Liuzzi, Sutil, Rosberg

Vettel was slow, Hamilton occupied pole and Alonso and Webber were flying. With one minute to go Alonso smashed into pole only to be beaten by Webber.

Hamilton lapped around in the background but he was not fast enough at this stage. Meanwhile Vettel found some speed and got up to P2. Also worth a massive shout out was Liuzzi in a career best P4!

So with seconds to go it was business as usual; a Red Bull one, two. But wait… what’s this? Hamilton was not about to give up and was flying down the back straight. Would he get through the chicane OK? Had he done enough?

YES! Lewis Hamilton became the first non Red Bull driver to gain a pole in 2010 and this triumphant event was made 100 times more exciting by the fact that we could actually hear the Canadian crowd roar with pleasure!

Today's action was an absolute pleasure to watch. Finally an exciting qualifying session and to be perfectly honest it was so close it wouldn’t really have mattered if the Red Bulls had locked out the front row!

On average the Canadian GP has at least two safety car incidents and with Hamilton on pole followed by Red Bull and a rejuvenated Alonso, I really hope we get the best race of the season tomorrow. The committed fans deserve it! Take note Bernie, flashy grandstands and stupid rock concerts do nothing for the sport, committed fans do!

Final standings

1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.105

2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:15.373

3 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:15.420

4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:15.435

5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.520

6 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:15.648

7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:15.688

8 Robert Kubica Renault 1:15.715

9 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:15.881

10 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:16.071

11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:16.434