Canadian Grand Prix 2012: Red Bull’s Vettel takes Montreal pole
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel holds off Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to take pole for Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix
Sebastian Vettel will start on pole for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix after the Red Bull driver edged out McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
The defending world champion ran the best lap of one minute 13.784 seconds in Montreal – just 0.303 seconds quicker than Hamilton, who had topped the timesheets in first practice on Friday.
Alonso, who is three points ahead of Vettel in the drivers’ standings, was 0.064 slower than Hamilton, with Mark Webber fourth in the other Red Bull at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
“I think we have learned a couple of lessons from the last few races where we were quick but we didn’t get it out of car in qualifying,” said Vettel.
“It was important to have a clean run in qualifying here. I was happy throughout qualifying really. I was able to get a little bit quicker each time.
“It looked tight in the beginning but in the end we could make a bit more of a difference. I’m looking forward to the race. I think we have a good car.”
Hamilton said he was “very pleased” with the performance and admitted his surprise at getting onto the front row for Sunday’s race.
“It was definitely harder for us today – we struggled,” he said. “We were working with the tyres in P3, and in qualifying we were having to push extremely hard to get the tyres to switch on.
“We’re very happy with our performance, and very surprised to see us on the front row, but happy to be there.”
Hamilton’s McLaren team-mate Jenson Button struggled with reliability problems and will start 10th. 
Canadian Grand Prix 2012: Starting grid
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 13.784secs
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:14.087
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:14.151
4 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:14.346
5 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:14.411
6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:14.465
7 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:14.645
8 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:14.705
9 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:14.812
10 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:15.182
11 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:14.688
12 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:14.734
13 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India 1:14.748
14 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:15.078
15 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:15.156
16 Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams 1:15.170
17 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:15.231
18 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham 1:16.263
19 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham 1:16.482
20 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:16.602
21 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) HRT-F1 1:17.492
22 Timo Glock (Ger) Marussia 1:17.901
23 Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia 1:18.255
24 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 1:18.330
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