Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to beat Red Bull to pole position this season when he grabbed the coveted grid slot in Canada.
The McLaren driver, who was fastest in Q1 and Q2, was the firm favourite to take pole, however, what many believed was his finally flying lap proved to be slower than that of Mark Webber's while Sebastian Vettel snuck into second place. And yet again, it appeared as if Red Bull would dominate the front row.
But the story wasn't over.
Crossing the line just in time to start another lap, Hamilton put in an impressive 1:15.105 to beat Webber by 0.268s and put an end to Red Bull's run of seven successive pole positions.
Fernando Alonso was fourth for Ferrari, ahead of Jenson Button, Tonio Liuzzi, Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica.
Qualifying Report
Conditions were cloudy and bright in Montreal with an ambient temperature of 23C and a track temperature of 31C.
The graining issues of the three practice session were gradually eliminated as rubber was laid down through Q1. Vitaly Petrov set the first meaningful P1 time of 1:20.210. Significantly it was the Lotus of Jarno Trulli who was next into the P1 slot with a 1:19.896.
Adrian Sutil showed that Force India would make a strong challenge to get both cars into Q3 by reducing P1 to 1:18.500 on his first timed lap. Despite flatspotting his front left tyre Vitaly Petrov edged P1 down to 1:17.883 which was instantly beaten by a resurgent Fernando Alonso with a 1:17.864.
Red Bull and McLaren were going different ways on tyre set-up with the Red Bulls on soft tyres and the McLarens on scrubbed sets of hard tyres.
Fernando Alonso reduced his P1 time down to 1:17.255 but Petrov wasn't finished. He pushed his Renault into the P1 spot with a 1:17.203 which lasted a few moments before Mark Webber took P1 with a 1:17.102. Tonio Liuzzi snatched it off him with a 1:17.086 and then Lewis Hamilton took over with a 1:16.614.
Team-mate Jenson Button slotted into P2 which was immediately surpassed by Sebastian Vettel. Mark Webber retook P1 with a 1:16.427, Alonso reduced it to 1:16.304 and then Lewis Hamilton became the first man in the 1:15s with a 1:15.889.
Many of the top teams were using Q1 to evaluate what tyres they would run in Q3. Going into the final five minutes, apart from the new teams being in the drop zone, it was a question of which of the Saubers would be eliminated, with de la Rosa lying firmly17th and Kobayashi 18th.
In the final seconds, Heikki Kovalainen almost made Lotus boss Tony Fernandes' day by jumping ahead of Kobayashi's time with the Japanese driver struggling. As he crossed the line Kamui hauled himself from P19 to P18 - still eliminated, but stopping himself becoming the first competitive scalp of the new teams.
So out went: 18.Kobayashi, 19.Kovalainen, 20.Trulli, 21.Glock, 22.Senna, 23.Di Grassi, 24. Chandhok
Qualifying 2
If the first session had shown a rapidly evolving timesheet, then Q2 would be the same but with greater consequences. Liuzzi showed the effects of regaining his old - unbroken - chassis by posting the first P1 time at 1:17.720. Mark Webber took this down to 1:16.292, Vettel nudged under it with a 1:16.163 and then Lewis Hamilton showed why he wanted to make it three poles out of three in Canada with a 1:16.053.
Fernando Alonso reminded everyone that he was in with a shout with a 1:15.954 which was beaten by Canada specialist Robert Kubica with a 1:15.882. Vettel lapped again and took P1 down to 1:15.556, before Lewis Hamilton regained P1 by a quarter of a second with a 1:15.528.
Going into the final five minutes and the danger positions were: 7.Massa, 8.Sutil, 9.Button, 10.Schumacher, 11.Liuzzi, 12.Barrichello, 13.Petrov, 14.Alguersuari, 15.Buemi, 16.de la Rosa, 17.Hulkenberg.
Despite being in P1 and P2 Vettel and Hamilton both came out again to test tyres. Nico Hulkeberg put his Williams up into P11, Liuzzi, Petrov and Schumacher didn't improve on the first of multiple lap runs.
On the second, though, Liuzzi jumped to P9, pushing Schumacher into P11, before the former World Champion impoved - although only to P10. Button was now outside the top ten but made himself safe with a P7 and subsequently a P6 lap.
Liuzzi wasn't finished, though and took P8 pushing Michael down to P11 which became P12 when Hulkenberg passed him and P13 when Rubens Barrichello eclipsed his time. The Mercedes driver had one final shot at making himself safe but missed the final chicane.
So out went: 11.Barrichello
12.Hulkenberg
13.Schumacher
14.Petrov
15.Buemi
16.Alguersuari
17.de la Rosa
The top six were covered by just 0.25 of a second, though that would have been slim comfort to Michael Schumacher who was the biggest casualty of the session.
Qualifying 3
The big question going into Q3 was what tyres to run? Given the high chance of an early Safety Car in Canada then that would a be a pit-stop for nothing. Would it be better to qualify on the high-graining option with a hope of switching to the harder prime early on. Or was qualifying on the hard tyres that would last considerably longer into therace the better choice.
McLaren and Ferrari went soft; Red Bull went hard. The two McLarens were out early, but only Lewis Hamilton looked like he meant business setting provisional pole at 1:15.500.
Red Bull headed out to do one long run on the hard tyres. Fernando Alonso jumped into P2, Mark Webber beat him to P2, Vettel at this stage was way off the pace. Alonso retook P2, Mark Webber retook it off him.
Lewis Hamilton had retired to the pits to change tyres but came out on yet more soft tyres. Button slotted into P4 and then Alonso jumped up into provisional pole. Seconds later Mark Webber eclipsed his time with a Champions Wall-skimming 1:15.373.
Sebastian Vettel finally got his car together but could not beat Webber's time, at which point the Red Bulls were lining up on the front row with Alonso in P3 and the two McLaren's in P4 and P5.
Out Hamilton came for one final fling and after a sighting lap put in a purple (fastest) Sector 1, a personal best Sector 2 and a purple Sector 3. It was an amazing lap and finally broke Red Bull's pole position dominance while giving him three Canadian poles out of three.
Perhaps overshadowing this achievement was Tonio Liuzzi's amazing lap that grabbed P6 (at one stage P4) for Force India, finally getting ahead of his team-mate and beating Kubica, Massa and Rosberg into the bargain.
With teams almost certainly stopping twice in the race tomorrow and with the front five covered by 0.4 of a second, on different tyres and different strategies, it could prove to be an epic race. Even without it raining.
FH
Times
01. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.105
02. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:15.373
03. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:15.420
04. Alonso Ferrari 1:15.435
05. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.520
06. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:15.648
07. Massa Ferrari 1:15.688
08. Kubica Renault 1:15.715
09. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:15.881
10. Rosberg Mercedes 1:16.071
11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:16.434
12. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:16.438
13. Schumacher Mercedes 1:16.492
14. Petrov Renault 1:16.844
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.928
16. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:17.029
17. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:17.384
18. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:18.019
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.237
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.698
21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:18.941
22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:19.484
23. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:19.675
24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:27.757
