MONTREAL // Lewis Hamilton put in a stellar lap to annex pole position for today's Canadian Grand Prix, flirting with the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's unyielding concrete walls and finishing 0.258 seconds clear of the field - a huge margin at a track where gaps are usually measured in thousandths.
He then had to celebrate at walking pace, after McLaren instructed him to switch off his engine. Had he not done so, there might not have been enough left in the tank to complete the mandatory fuel check. Hamilton's pole is the 18th of his Formula One career, his third on the trot in Canada and the first for any team other than Red Bull-Renault this season. "It has been an overwhelming weekend for me so far," he said.
"I obtained my first F1 pole position here in 2007, and also my first win. So many memories came flooding back." He paid handsome tribute to his mechanics, too, and felt their role in his success was every bit as significant as his own. During the morning's final free practice session, Hamilton clipped the wall at Turn Four: nothing was broken, but the crew changed the front and rear suspension units as a precaution.
"I don't think I've ever seen them work so hard," he said. "It was like watching an orchestra and today's result is a reflection of their hard work." The race is poised to be an engaging strategic battle. Hamilton set his qualifying time on Bridgestone's super-soft tyre, which yields a performance advantage but is significantly less durable than the harder medium. The vanquished Red Bull drivers both opted to qualify on the latter - and Mark Webber, the world championship leader, just edged out Sebastian Vettel, his teammate, to claim second place.
By general consensus of the paddock, the medium tyre will give teams a useful tactical advantage, particularly at the start of a race, when cars are fully laden with fuel and tyre wear is at its most severe. "Today has been good for me," said Webber, "so I'm very happy. We expected McLaren to be strong and Lewis did a very quick lap, but obviously he's on a different compound and I'm delighted that we're on the front row on a tyre that will be more stable for us."
Hamilton denied that McLaren had taken an unnecessary gamble, although his pace earlier in qualifying suggested that he could still have challenged for pole if he had followed Red Bull's lead on tyre choice. "My biggest problem today was getting a clear lap," Vettel said, "and I didn't manage that until the end of the session. I'm happy with my situation, though. From what we saw yesterday, it is difficult to make the softer tyre last for more than a few laps."
This year's refuelling ban has reduced teams' strategic options on Sunday afternoons and a one-stop race is usually the preferred tactic. This weekend, however, the tyre wear rate has been such that some teams might have little option but to pit twice during the course of 70 laps. Like the timing of any safety car interruptions, tyre management will be critical to getting a good result. "We just have to take each day as it comes," Hamilton said.
"We have had a few problems making the softer tyre last, but we don't know what track conditions will be like tomorrow and we'll just do our best to look after them as well as we can." Fernando Alonso was fourth for Ferrari, ahead of Jenson Button (Webber's closest rival in the title chase) and Italian Tonio Liuzzi, a career-best sixth for Force India-Mercedes. Adrian Sutil, his teammate, was three places further back on the grid to complete a good day for Vijay Mallya's team.
Mercedes GP showed encouraging form during Friday's free practice, but both drivers struggled yesterday, Nico Rosberg was 10th and Michael Schumacher failed to make it through to the final stages of qualifying. Lining up 13th, however, he benefits from freedom of tyre choice ahead of the race - and that decision will be a no-brainer for the seven-times world champion. For all Hamilton's latent speed, fast today might just translate as fragile tomorrow.
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