CANADIAN GP 2010 QUALIFYING

The Canadian GP is always tiring as on this side of the world, qualifying is at 1am. And the race is at midnight but it's a good thing I'm off on Monday. These few days have been great with the Canadian GP on with Le Mans at the same time and the World Cup in full swing.

But this morning after waking up at 1am, groggy and sleepy, I immediately came to my senses as the circuit Gilles Villeneuve came alive with the sounds of the glorious V8. It was an exciting and glorious qualifying session after 2 years missing from the action. The McLarens and Red Bulls were on the pace as expected with Ferrari showing some pace after the disastrous outing in Turkey. I expected them to come back as this race was using the super soft tyres.

The action was fast and furious with Lewis taking command of the circuit and taking pole off Webber on his last flying lap which was set with 8 seconds remaining on the clock. It was one of those classic poles as everybody had run out of time and him being still on the lap after the chequered flag had fallen.

Button didn't do too well as he finished P5, something to do with his tyres not getting in enough heat. He seems to have this problem of getting heat into his tyres since last year at Brawn.

The interesting part of this qualifying and the strategy for the race is that Red Bull have gone for the Prime tyres for qualifying i.e. the harder compound while everybody else has gone for the super soft. They still managed to get P2 and P3 though, just shows you the true pace of the Bulls.

It seems that they will try to overtake Lewis at the start and maintain a long lead before changing tyres later. Hopefully Lewis can keep them behind at the start and as everybody knows, Montreal likes to throw a few safety cars which should help Lewis to pit for the harder tyres. But then again, anything can happen in F1.

The rest of field didn't make such an impact. Renault faded out of view although they did better than Mercedes. Schumacher got P13 while Rosberg P10, they were both beaten by Force India. It was expected that Force India would do well with their low downforce chassis and Mercedes engine.

All in all, another great qualifying from one of the best tracks on the calendar. Really glad Montreal came back. Now, looking forward to the action tonight.

Qualifying 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