Lewis Hamilton claims his 65th Pole Position at the Canadian GP

In qualifying for the Canadian GP at the Montreal circuit yesterday, Lewis Hamilton claimed his 65th Pole Position of his career and is now level with Aryton Senna's record of 65 Pole Positions in the sport ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas in a session that saw the Mercedes V Ferrari battle build up another notch.

In Q1, it was Sebastian Vettel who set the pace early on in the session followed by his team mate Kimi Raikkonen and Carlos Sainz Jr. But during the first session of qualifying, many of the team's engineers instructed their drivers that there was “traffic everywhere” and to try and get as clear a lap as they possibly could.

In the final stages of Q1, Bottas led the field ahead of Hamilton and Vettel as a crash for Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber at Turn 1 after his right rear wheel went onto the grass and forced him until a spin and then curtailed the climax to Q1. This incident then forced several drivers to abandon late efforts to improve.

In Q2, Hamilton set the pace early on ahead of Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez. Many of the drivers complained during the second session that there was “no grip” to them and drivers which included Carlos Sainz Jr spinning while also complaining of “heavy traffic”.
In the latter stages of the session, Hamilton still led the field ahead of his team mate Bottas and Raikkonen and all eyes will be upon both the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers as to who would claim Pole Position.

In Q3, Hamilton took provisional pole with a 1m11.791s lap on his first run, before Vettel attempted to respond and fell short by just 0.004 seconds thanks to a wild moment coming out of the Turn 6/7 chicane. Hamilton then lowered his own benchmark to 1m11.459s on his second run to seal pole, before Vettel shaved 0.006s off his own best time.

But it was Lewis Hamilton who claimed Pole Position for the Canadian GP and claimed his 65th Pole Position of his career and tied second with Ayrton Senna in the record books which is a fantastic achievement. He was fastest with a lap time of 1:11.459.

Hamilton finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel in second place who was 0.330 seconds behind him and ahead of Valtteri Bottas in third place who was 0.718 seconds behind Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified in fourth place ahead of Max Verstappen in fifth place, Daniel Ricciardo in sixth place, Felipe Massa in seventh place, Sergio Perez in eighth place, Esteban Ocon in ninth place and Nico Hulkenberg who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Daniil Kvyat qualified out of the top ten in eleventh place ahead of Fernando Alonso in twelfth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in thirteenth place, Romain Grosjean in fourteenth place and Jolyon Palmer in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Stoffel Vandoorne qualified in sixteenth place ahead of local driver Lance Stroll in seventeenth place, Kevin Magnussen in eighteenth place, Marcus Ericsson in nineteenth place and Pascal Wehrlein in twentieth place.

The classification of Qualifying for the Canadian GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.11.459s
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.330s
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 0.718s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.793s
5. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 0.944s
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.098s
7. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.399s
8. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.559s
9. Esteban Ocon, Force India-Mercedes, 1.676s
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 1.812s
11. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1.13.690
12. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.13.693
13. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.13.756
14. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1.13.839
15. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1.14.293
16. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren-Honda, 1.14.182
17. Lance Stroll, Williams-Mercedes, 1.14.209
18. Kevin Magnussen, Haas Ferrari, 1.14.318
19. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.14.495
20. Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.14.810

Driving for Pleasure will be covering the Canadian GP weekend with our race report alongside the latest news.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa