McLaren's Lewis Hamilton timed his final run to perfection to snatch pole position for the Canadian Formula One Grand Prix Saturday and halt Red Bull's domination of qualifying this season. With barely seconds to spare and hardly any fuel left in his car's tank, the Briton roared around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in a slick one minute 15.105 seconds to claim his third straight pole in Montreal and shatter Red Bull's hopes of an eighth consecutive pole this year. Australia's Mark Webber, the championship leader who had started at the front of the grid in the three previous races, had to settle for second place while his German teammate Sebastian Vettel was third. Spain's Fernando Alonso was fourth for Ferrari with Hamilton's teammate and reigning world champion Jenson Button fifth after just sneaking into the final stage of qualifying with a blistering last lap in the second session. “It's been a great day, it's a bit overwhelming really. When the guys told me I'd got pole, it reminded me of my first win and first pole here in 2007,” he said. Despite winning the last race in Turkey earlier this month, Hamilton said he would still need some luck to hold off the flying Red Bulls in Sunday's race after gambling on his choice of tires. While the two Red Bulls went for a harder compound, Hamilton opted for a softer tire which has shown worrying signs of rapidly deteriorating on the Montreal street circuit. “We know the option tire is not the best but you might see a different type of race here,” Hamilton said. “There is always a chance of a safety car and who knows the track might improve and the option tire might be the best one.” Both Red Bull drivers said they preferred their strategy. “It is a long race tomorrow,” Webber said. “And we think it is something that will be beneficial to us.” While Red Bull had qualified fastest for every race this season, McLaren was widely tipped to unseat them in Canada, which was left off the Formula One calendar last year, because the street circuit's long straights and hairpin corners better suit their cars. The signs were ominous when McLaren dominated practice, setting the fastest times in two of three warmup sessions, but Red Bull threatened to trump them during qualifying when Webber posted the quickest time of 1:15.373 with only seconds to go. Hamilton managed to get across the finish line just before the session expired to start one last flying lap and beat Webber's time to grab his 18th career pole and first since Abu Dhabi last year. The Englishman was almost a quarter of a second faster than Webber, a big margin in Formula One qualifying, but was running so low on fuel that he had to stop his car and push it back to the pits to ensure he could comply with the FIA regulations of providing a fuel sample. Hamilton was later fined $10,000 and reprimanded for failing to return his car to the pits quickly enough. Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi upstaged some of the sport's biggest names to qualify sixth, just ahead of Felipe Massa and Renault's Robert Kubica while Michael Schumacher failed to make it to the last phase and was placed 13th.
