Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel turned the tables on his rivals, who had come here expecting Red Bull to be at a disadvantage, by taking pole position in Canada on Saturday with a lap of 1m 13.014s.
Vettel was very hard pressed by the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, however. The Spaniard overtook his Brazilian team mate on their last runs, which stopped the clocks in 1m 13.199s and 1m 13.217s respectively.
Mark Webber recovered from his morning problems to take fourth in the second Red Bull on 1m 13.429s, while McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was disappointed with only fifth place on 1m 13.565s. Nico Rosberg separated him from Jenson Button, the Mercedes driver recording 1m 13.814s, the McLaren pilot 1m 13.838s.
Michael Schumacher was also right in there with 1m 13.864s, while Nick Heidfeld outpaced Renault team mate Vitaly Petrov, 1m 14.062s to 1m 14.085s.
Paul di Resta’s final effort in Q2, in which Massa was fastest in 1m 13.431s from Vettel, Webber, Alonso and Hamilton, just failed to get his Force India into Q3. He had to be satisfied with 11th place on 1m 14.752s. That was comfortably ahead of team mate Adrian Sutil, who was 14th on 1m 15.287s. Between them, Pastor Maldonado was 12th for Williams on 1m 15.043s, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber on 1m 15.285s.
Sebastien Buemi took his Toro Rosso round in 1m 15.334s for 15th, with Williams’ Rubens Barrichello on 1m 15.361s in 16th and Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa surviving a Q1 wallbrusher to complete a sound job with 1m 15.587s for 17th.
Qualifying had begun under darkening skies, but the rain held off as Alonso narrowly headed Vettel and Massa. A late improvement got Kamui Kobayashi into Q2 for Sauber, leaving Jaime Alguersuari stranded in Q1 and 18th with 1m 16.294s to 17th fastest De la Rosa’s 1m 16.229s.
Jarno Trulli again just pipped Lotus partner Heikki Kovalainen with 1m 16.745s to 1m 16.786s, while Tonio Liuzzi survived a spin while trying to improve on 1m 18.424s, which left him 21st in the improved HRT ahead of Timo Glock on 1m 18.537s for Virgin, Narain Karthikeyan on 1m 18.574s in the second HRT and Jerome D’Ambrosio on 1m 19.414s in the second Virgin.
Although D’Ambrosio’s best was not within the 107 percent rule, the stewards have decided to allow him to race.
The big question now is what the weather will do on Sunday. “There will be rain,” polesitter Vettel said. “It just depends on when.”
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 1:14.011 | 1:13.486 | 1:13.014 | 17 |
| 2 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:13.822 | 1:13.672 | 1:13.199 | 19 |
| 3 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:14.026 | 1:13.431 | 1:13.217 | 20 |
| 4 | 2 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 1:14.375 | 1:13.654 | 1:13.429 | 22 |
| 5 | 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:14.114 | 1:13.926 | 1:13.565 | 18 |
| 6 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:14.920 | 1:13.950 | 1:13.814 | 14 |
| 7 | 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:14.374 | 1:13.955 | 1:13.838 | 20 |
| 8 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:14.970 | 1:14.242 | 1:13.864 | 14 |
| 9 | 9 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1:15.096 | 1:14.467 | 1:14.062 | 27 |
| 10 | 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:14.699 | 1:14.354 | 1:14.085 | 25 |
| 11 | 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:14.874 | 1:14.752 | 19 | |
| 12 | 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1:15.585 | 1:15.043 | 20 | |
| 13 | 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:15.694 | 1:15.285 | 21 | |
| 14 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:14.931 | 1:15.287 | 21 | |
| 15 | 18 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 1:15.901 | 1:15.334 | 18 | |
| 16 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1:15.331 | 1:15.361 | 20 | |
| 17 | 17 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:16.229 | 1:15.587 | 21 | |
| 18 | 19 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 1:16.294 | 10 | ||
| 19 | 21 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1:16.745 | 12 | ||
| 20 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1:16.786 | 10 | ||
| 21 | 23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1:18.424 | 10 | ||
| 22 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:18.537 | 12 | ||
| 23 | 22 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:18.574 | 11 | ||
| 25 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:19.414 | 13 | |||
| Q1 107% Time | 1:18.989 |
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