Lewis Hamilton takes record-breaking Pole at Canadian Grand Prix – Vettel in 2nd

Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position in the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix, breaking Ayrton Senna’s pole record, with Ferrari’s Vettel in second place.

After an unhappy outing at the Monaco Grand Prix a fortnight ago, Lewis Hamilton was back on top form in qualifying for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, putting in some blistering laps to take pole position, ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari in second.

Not only does Hamilton take pole in Canada, he also set a record for pole positions by breaking the record of his hero Ayrton Senna – his 65th pole position – and is just three poles behind all-time record holder Michael Schumacher.

For Hamilton it was a bit like winding the clock back to the Mercedes supremacy of the past few years, and although Vettel took second spot he didn’t look like he had the pace to tackle the Mercedes, or certainly not Hamilton in the Mercedes. That said, Hamilton was on ultra-softs while the Ferrari was on super-softs.

Behind the two leaders it was Bottas in third and Raikkonen in fourth – cementing the Mercedes/Ferrari dominance this year – although both Bottas and Raikkonen were a chunk slower than Hamilton and Vettel, and it’s a Red Bull third row as Verstappen and Ricciardo swap their Aston Martins and caravans for their F1 cars.

Behind the Mercedes, Ferraris and Red Bulls, Felipe Massa took seventh for Williams, Perez eighth for Force India with team-mate Esteban Ocon in ninth, and Nico Hulkenburg in the Renault taking tenth spot.

On his return from an impressive outing in Indy (where his Honda engine expired) Fernando Alonso managed 12th place in his McLaren, with team mate Stoffel Vandoorne only managing 16th.