Canadian GP: Bridgestone Saturday qualifying notes

McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has powered to his first Formula One pole position after extracting the maximum performance from the Bridgestone Potenza super soft compound to set a lap of 1min 15.707secs around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The feat was all the more impressive as this is Hamilton's debut at this circuit.

Hamilton was fastest in all bar the first qualifying session and will be joined on the front row of the grid by team-mate Fernando Alonso. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) were third and fourth fastest on a day where teams struggled to find a good set-up on a rapidly changing circuit.

Minimising rear tyre degradation is a priority here and with the changing grip levels a good set-up today will not necessarily be the correct one for tomorrow's race. Hamilton set the day's fastest lap, a 1min 15.486secs, in the second qualifying session. Two seconds covered the top 18 drivers.

Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations
"Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for achieving his first pole position in Formula One. For a driver who has learnt his craft through karting and the GP2 Series on Bridgestone tyres, it was appropriate that his first Formula One pole was also on Bridgestones. Because of the rain overnight and the cars running before us, the circuit was quite slippery in the morning so we did not see any real track improvements until later in the day. The super soft was clearly the faster Potenza and was used for the fastest laps by all of the drivers. The graining on both compounds was clearly reduced, however it is fair to say that the low number of laps run, and the low fuel loads were also a factor in this. I am confident that both compounds will work as predicted in the race."

Credit: bridgestone