Hamilton takes last-second pole in Canada

Pushing the accelerator as hard as he could, Lewis Hamilton, being the last car out on the track and time running out, recorded a 1:15:105 best lap, to edge the Red Bull duo of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel on Saturday to take pole position for Sunday's Grand Prix of Canada at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes gets provisional pole position .

Photo by xpb.cc.

"It's fantastic for the team. It's the result of continued hard work from the guys. I saw the second to last lap Mark had gone ahead," said Hamilton.

Hamilton recorded the quickest time from the outset, when the 2008 world champion took the fastest time of the session with a 1:15:889. The usual suspects of team HRT, Lotus and Virgin Racing did not go any further to the next session. Sauber's Kamui Kobyaschi did not progress either, but his teammate, Pedro de La Rosa, continued on, only to be knocked out in the next session.

"Well, we knew before qualifying that it would be a difficult one." claimed De La Rosa. "We ran the car for the first time on a significantly lower downforce level and it doesn't really suit us. We are sliding all over the place, and that's why the tyres don't work. There is no grip at all and on top of that I had difficulties heating up the brakes. We have to see what we can do in tomorrow's race in terms of tyre strategy, and be prepared to benefit from possible safety car situations."

Michael Schumacher was the next important victim of that session. The seven time world champion and Mercedes driver could not get any higher then 13th on the grid. It was a bitter disappointment for a driver who won this race seven times in his career.

"I am obviously disappointed after today's qualifying." Said Schumacher. "We simply did not have the balance or grip and overall we had a lot of problems with braking and handling. The car was just not performing as we expected. We had similar issues yesterday afternoon and we made some changes after second practice. This morning, the changes seemed to have made sense as our position was reasonable but this afternoon, I was facing similar issues again. It's difficult to understand the reasons at the moment but we will look deeply into it now and find a good strategy for the race tomorrow."

Rubens Barrichello, Williams F1 Team .

Photo by xpb.cc.

Hamilton continued his ways again, and recorded a faster quick lap of 1:15:528, while both Williams's drivers Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguasuari of Toro Rosso, and Renault's Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov, all failed to reach the last round, along with Schumacher.

The Ferrari drivers of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished fourth and seventh on the grid. Vitantonio Luzzi was a stunning sixth, while his Force India teammate, Adrian Sutil, took ninth. Robert Kubica was eighth in his Renault, while Schumacher's teammate, Nico Rosberg, finished in tenth.

Hamilton was overjoyed afterwards, considering his McLaren ran out of fuel on the cool down lap, having to push the car himself before track marshals assisted him on the straightaway.

"I was so fortunate the guys came on the radio and said I had chance to get another lap in, it's great to finally strip these guys. (Meaning Red Bull) It's a great result and I'm very happy. Stated Hamilton. "I did a good lap. I don't know where I found that time."

See also: Fine and reprimand for Hamilton after Canada pole