Hamilton takes pole while Kubica beats Raikkonen to second

F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

After an exciting qualifying session, which was characterised by small driver errors and spins, Lewis Hamilton has conquered pole position. The McLaren driver was followed by BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica and World Chamion Kimi Raikkonen.

Under sunny skies, the Canadian qualifying session kicked off at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel will not come in action during the qualifying session as he crashed into the wall during the third free practice and his car was too badly damaged to repair. Vettel will start the Canadian Grand Prix from the pitlane tomorrow with a new chassis. The Faenza-based team got some other bad as Sebastien Bourdais, who also brushed against the wall during P3, needed a new gearbox. He will receive a five-place grid penalty.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil, was the first man out on track while the others soon followed. Lewis Hamilton almost crashed against the wall, but was able to keep his car on the right track.

Two other driver made a small mistake. Rubens Barrichello made a small off-track excursion in the grass while Jarno Trulli made a spin but was able to continue.

After Q1, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella, Adrian Sutil and Sebastien Bourdais are eliminated while Lewis Hamilton clocked the fastest lap. It appears that Jenson Button suffered technical problems.

As Q2 kicked-off, Jarno Trulli again spinned and briefly caused a yellow-flag situation. Only seconds later, Fernando Alonso had an off-track excursion as he thought to be driving a lawn-mower. One lap after the small incident, the Renault driver surprisingly put the second lap time.

Halfway Q2, Hamilton was on top of the timesheets followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber. Kubica and Heidfeld only came out of the pits for the first time after 7 minutes.

With only 5 minutes left, Heidfeld seems to be struggling to get his tyres warm again as he is unable to place his F1.08 in the top 10. It's not the first time that the German suffers this problem.

In the meantime, Fernando Alonso's R28 remains competitive and this while team mate Nelson Piquet Jr. again fails to make it into Q3. Nick Heidfeld managed to qualify for the final part of the Canadian qualifying session on the option tyres. Rubens Barrichello managed to put down a good performance as well as he placed his RA108 in the top 10.

In his outlap, Mark Webber spun and tagged the wall with his front-right wheel. This could compromise his participation in Q3.

Nelson Piquet Jr., Jarno Trulli, David Coulthard, Kazuki Nakajima and Timo Glock will not battle for the pole position as they are eliminated after Q2.

The McLaren drivers are the first to come out on track as the 10-minute clock of Q3 starts to run. Lewis Hamilton immediately put down the fastest lap time, but his former team mate, Fernando Alonso, wasn't far behind in his Renault. The team really made a lot of progress during the last couple of races.

With two minutes left, the drivers put down fast laps in speed tempo. Rubens Barrichello now leaves the pits as well as Mark Webber remained in the pits after his spin at the end of Q2.

Only 18 seconds left and Raikkonen seems to be on the way to take pole position. It is however Kubica who put down the fastest lap. Later on, Hamilton improves his time one last time to stay ahead of Kubcia who takes 2nd and Kimi Raikkonen third.

Renault's Fernando Alonso surprises as he is 4th. Rosberg will start from 5th position while Massa disappoints with only 6th place.