Hamilton pips Rosberg to pole start in Montreal

MONTREAL: Lewis Hamilton swept to his fifth Canadian Grand Prix pole position yesterday and piled pressure on his championship-leading Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.

The triple Formula One world champion will seek to win in Montreal for the fifth time today, knowing he will retake the title lead if Rosberg draws a blank.

The German is 24 points ahead after six of 21 races.

Hamilton’s love affair with the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where he took his first pole in 2007, continued as he seized the top slot with a time of one minute 12.812 seconds and beat Rosberg by 0.062s.

Two weeks after lucking into his first win of the season at Monaco, thanks to a Red Bull pitstop bungle, Hamilton provided further evidence that his campaign is back on track.

Rosberg’s second place brought him a 13th consecutive front row start, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel third fastest, and 0.178s behind Hamilton.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo qualified fourth for Red Bull, with 18-year-old teammate Max Verstappen fifth and Kimi Raikkonen sixth for Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso will start 10th after Spain’s two-time world champion signalled McLaren’s progress by reaching the final qualifying session for the third race in succession.

Compatriot Carlos Sainz become the first driver to fall victim this weekend to the feared ‘Wall of Champions’, hitting it in the second phase.

The Toro Rosso driver got too close to the wall at the final corner and paid the price, forcing the session to be red flagged.

He qualified 16th.– Reuters