Canadian Grand Prix: Hamilton takes pole ahead of Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton recovered from his Monaco misfortune with a convincing pole position for the 2015 Canadian Grand Prix, ahead of Nico Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton looked like the effects of his loss of a victory at the Monaco Grand Prix were playing a part in a poor final practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, but when qualifying started he showed his class with an emphatic pole, beating team mate Nico Rosberg, who starts in second place, by 0.309 seconds.

The fight was taken to Mercedes, to a degree, by Kimi Raikkonen (who takes third spot), the sole contender for Ferrari after Q1 when Sebastian Vettel failed to progress after a hybrid fault robbed him of speed. Vettel will start the race in 16th, joined by the Williams of Felipe Massa in 17th. Which should mean some overtaking action in the race.

Behind Raikkonen, it was the Williams of Bottas, and a strong performance from Lotus puts Grosjean and Maldonado in fifth and sixth with Hulkenberg taking seventh for Force India. Which makes six out of the top seven starters tomorrow powered by Mercedes.

Daniil Kvyat gave Red Bull eighth spot, ahead of team mate Daniel Ricciardo with Sergio Perez taking tenth for Force India.

It was another pitiful day for McLaren, with Jenson Button not even making qualifying after his hybrid system failed in practice, and Fernando Alonso starting 13th after missing most of final practice and needing and engine change. And is if that wasn’t enough, Alonso is now on his fourth engine and will get penalties for any future engine changes. Which won’t help McLaren much.

McLaren are unlikely to play any significant role in tomorrow’s race, but it should produce plenty of excitement as Massa and Vettel make progress from the back of the grid, and as this is Canada there’s more than a fair chance of a safety car or two and a splash of rain to mix things up.

That said, it’s hard to see the race as anything other than a Mercedes one-two.