Hamilton And McLaren Take 2010 Canadian Grand Prix Pole

Lewis Hamilton has saved a suicidal England by taking the pole position in the Canadian Grand Prix with a sizzling lap to nip the Red Bull’s of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

It was shaping up as a dark day for England today. The opening World Cup game was on. Not only did the “new” England look a lot like the “old” England team, but they threw in a horrendous goalkeeping performance to start off the World Cup with a tie against the USA. While the USA looked like a “team”, England looked poor and English fans know it.


Alas, it was not all bad. Lewis Hamilton did his best to save the day for the country. He timed the last lap of the qualifying session perfectly and nipped Mark Webber for the pole position. It was the first time Red Bull did not claim a pole this year. Hamilton was his usual on the edge self and the McLaren F-Duct really proved its usefulness on the long straights of the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit.

Alas, the results of the actual race may not be so happy for Hamilton. The McLaren is on the soft compound tires. The Red Bull is on the harder compounds. Why does this matter? The soft compounds are good for a few laps, but then reportedly fall way off. If this remains true for the track on Sunday, Hamilton will be like meat thrown to the lions. Of course, only time will tell on that account.

Were there any other surprises of note during qualifying? Yes, there were three. The first was the return of Ferrari. After a horrible weekend in Turkey, the team showed some pace. Alonso’s second row position on a track where one would expect the Scuderia to be slow was a nice development. Massa failed to impress again, but at least put it in the top 10 with his number 7 position.

A quick word out to two drivers. Vitantonio Luizi gets a big thumbs up for his best qualifying performance of the year in sixth position. He complained about his old chassis having something wrong with it. Apparently, he was right. Then there is El Michael. He qualified in 13th and blamed the car. One might believe it had his teammate not qualified in the top 10 a full 4 tenths faster than him. Regardless, it looks like the Brawn magic from last year is long gone.

Race Winner Prediction:



This is a tough one. The tire strategies make it doubtful Hamilton will be able to survive the Red Bulls after the first five laps or so. Then there is the very high likelihood of a safety car and perhaps even rain. Basically, we are talking about a toss up situation.

I’ll predict that Hamilton and one of the Red Bulls tangle and put themselves out of the race. I love Ferrari and Alonso, but think they aren’t as good in race trim as they might appear after qualifying. Given all this, I’ll pick Jenson Button to take the win. Mind you, I have little confidence in this prediction!

Lemmy
June 12, 2010

Here are the qualifying results:

1 Lewis Hamilton      McLaren        1:15.105
2 Mark Webber         Red Bull     +00.268
3 Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull     +00.315
4 Fernando Alonso     Ferrari     +00.330
5 Jenson Button     McLaren     +00.415
6 Vitantonio Liuzzi     Force India     +00.543
7 Felipe Massa         Ferrari     +00.583
8 Robert Kubica     Renault     +00.610
9 Adrian Sutil         Force India     +00.776
10 Nico Rosberg     Mercedes GP     +00.966
11 Rubens Barrichello     Williams     +01.329
12 Nico Hülkenberg     Williams     +01.333
13 Michael Schumacher     Mercedes GP     +01.387
14 Vitaly Petrov     Renault     +01.739
15 Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso     +01.823
16 Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso     +01.924
17 Pedro de la Rosa     Sauber         +02.279
18 Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber         +02.914
19 Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus         +03.132
20 Jarno Trulli     Lotus         +03.593
21 Timo Glock         Virgin         +03.836
22 Bruno Senna         Hispania     +04.379
23 Lucas Di Grassi     Virgin         +04.570
24 Karun Chandhok     Hispania     +12.652

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