Canadian Grand Prix: Rosberg beats Hamilton to pole for another Mercedes front row

Nico Rosberg has beaten Lewis Hamilton for pole position in qualifying for the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix with Sebastian Vettel a surprise third for Red Bull.

After the shenanigans at Monaco – with Lewis Hamilton convinced Nico Rosberg had wrecked his chance of pole position on purpose – Hamilton had something to prove in qualifying for the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. But he failed – just.

Despite the Montreal island circuit considered to suit Hamilton’s style more than Rosberg’s, it was the German who put in the quickest lap and will start in pole position for tomorrow’s race.

And, for a lot of the time, it looked like it would be a Mercedes second row too, with Mercedes-powered Williams looking set to take third and fourth, but a lap out of (almost) nowhere by Sebastian Vettel for third place pushed the Williams cars in to fourth (Bottas) and fifth (Massa).

The Williams cars have split the Red Bulls, with Vettel’s team mate (and 2014 nemesis) Daniel Ricciardo failing to out-qualify world champion Vettel (for only the second time) and starting the race in sixth place.

Fernando Alonso did his best in the Ferrari by taking seventh, Jean-Eric Vergne put his Toro Rosso in eighth, Jenson Button managed ninth and Kimi Raikkonen – who had just one quick lap in final qualifying as he’d used too many tyres to do more – managed to put his Ferrari in tenth.

Two casualties of qualifying were Marcus Ericsson in the Caterham, who crashed out in Q1, and Esteban Gutierrez in the Sauber who mangled his chassis in final qualifying. Both will start from the pit lane tomorrow after a long night for their engineers.

But tomorrow should be about the rivalry between Hamilton and Rosberg, unless the Williams duo manage to use their Mercedes power to put a spoke in Tema Mercedes’ race.