MONTREAL: Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel snatched pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday, ending a run of four poles in a row for the Mercedes team.
The Red Bull driver lapped the Montreal circuit in a fastest time of one minute 25.425 seconds with Lewis Hamilton second for Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas third in a Williams.
Nico Rosberg will start in fourth for Mercedes, with Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber in fifth. Fernando Alonso ended as the best of the Ferrari’s in sixth.
Bottas sprung the biggest surprise in the damp, but drying, Circuit de Giles Vileneuve.
Williams have had their worst ever start to an F1 season, yet to score a point so far, and they will hope that the Finn, who is in his debut year in the sport can finish in the points on Sunday.
Mixed day for Force India
Meanwhile, there were mixed results for Force India’s drivers, Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta.
While Sutil qualified for the third round, he could only finish in 10th place.
Di Resta, however, could not get into Q2, and will start in 17th place on Sunday’s grid. The Scottish driver was clear in where he saw the blame for his poor performance.
“We spent far too much time trying to fix a problem when the conditions were good when the car could have run – it’s the fault of the team again. It’s just not good enough,” he said.
Bottas, in contrast was thrilled, saying, “It’s way more up in the grid than we could have imagined.”
“The first six races have been so difficult, so this will be a nice boost for the team. We got everything just right today.”
Qualifying results: 1 Sebastian Vettel, 2 Lewis Hamilton, 3 Valtteri Bottas, 4 Nico Rosberg, 5 Mark Webber, 6 Fernando Alonso, 7 Jean-Eric Vergne, 8 Kimi Raikkonen, 9 Daniel Ricciardo, 10 Adrian Sutil, 11 Nico Hulkenberg, 12 Sergio Perez, 13 Pastor Maldonado, 14 Jenson Button, 15 Esteban Gutierrez, 16 Felipe Massa, 17 Paul di Resta, 18 Charles Pic, 19 Romain Grosjean*, 20 Jules Bianchi, 21 Max Chilton, 22 Giedo van der Gaarde.
* Grosjean will start at the back of the grid after receiving a 10-place penalty in Monaco. (Reuters)
