Vettel fastest in Montreal
Sebastian Vettel continued his dominance on qualifying this season as Red Bull definitively proved they have a car for all circuits.
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal was expected to be Red Bull's weakness, but Vettel disproved that theory by claiming his sixth pole from seven races this season.
It is the 21st pole of reigning champion Vettel's stunning Formula One career, elevating the 23-year-old German into the top 10 on the sport's all-time list.
Only Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Jim Clark, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mika Hakkinen, Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet now stand ahead of Vettel.
Vettel, who put his car in the wall yesterday in first practice, will be joined on the front row by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard in such a position for the first time since last season's Singapore Grand Prix.
Vettel's time of 1:13.014 comfortably eclipsed last year's pole lap from Lewis Hamilton, who finds himself down in fifth behind Felipe Massa in his Ferrari and Red Bull's Mark Webber.
Nico Rosberg lines up sixth in his Mercedes, with Jenson Button a lowly seventh, his worst grid position of the season.
It is understood, however, McLaren leaned towards a wet set-up for tomorrow's race, dangerously so because while there is a strong chance of rain there are no guarantees.
Appreciably, on a dry track for qualifying - despite the threat of rain in the air - that compromised their running, underlining their grid slots.
Michael Schumacher starts eighth in his Mercedes, followed by the Renault duo of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov, the German beating the Russian for only the second time this year.
Paul di Resta produced a phenomenal effort to try to get into the top 10, but it was not quite enough from the Scot.
In Q2, Di Resta conjured his fastest lap of the weekend so far in his Force India, only to fall three tenths of a second adrift as the top five teams had too much in hand for the middle order pack.
Williams' Pastor Maldonado starts 12th, followed by the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi and Adrian Sutil in his Force India, out-qualified by Di Resta for the sixth time in seven races.
Sebastien Buemi will line up 15th in his Toro Rosso ahead of Rubens Barrichello for Williams, whilst Pedro de la Rosa is a creditable 17th.
The 40-year-old Spaniard only jumped in the car late in yesterday's second practice session after being given permission by McLaren to return to the Swiss team for whom he drive in 13 races last year.
With Sergio Perez complaining of feeling unwell following the first practice session in the wake of his crash in qualifying a fortnight ago, Sauber were forced to turn to De la Rosa.
There was one scare in Q1 when De la Rosa banged against a wall at turn seven with his rear-left tyre, only to escape on this occasion unlike his crash at turn four at the end of FP3.
Jerome D'Ambrosio will have to fall on the mercy of the stewards if he is to compete in the race as he finished outside the 107% rule.
Alonso's pacesetting time in Q1 of 1:13.822 put intense pressure on those at the back of the grid, with Virgin's D'Ambrosio missing out by half a second.
Such a gap could prove difficult to argue against as the stewards have it within their power to reinstate a driver if they believe enough was done in qualifying and throughout practice.
If they decide against it, then it will be a 23-car grid, and the first time Virgin have failed to have both cars take part.
Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari was again the man to fall by the wayside from the more established teams in Q1, with the Spaniard in his Toro Rosso starting from 18th.
Behind him will be Lotus duo Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, followed by the Hispania pair of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan in 21st and 23rd, sandwiching Virgin's Timo Glock.
Over the in-car radio Vettel initially offered his gratitude to the team as he said: 'Thanks for fixing the car after I stuffed it in the wall.'
He later added: 'We made up some ground from last year when we committed ourselves to a different strategy and I sacrificed qualifying.
'I obviously had a poor morning yesterday, but all in all I'm very happy.
'This is a big step, but the big thing is tomorrow as conditions could be tricky as we could see some rain.'
Alonso also highlighted the effect of a potential wet race as he said: 'I feel good, feel confident.
'This is the team's best result of the year - second and third - a much better result than we expected.
'All weekend things have been smooth and we are looking good for tomorrow, but conditions could change.
'It could be the least important qualifying of the year.'
After producing his best qualifying performance since September and last year's Italian Grand Prix,
Massa said: 'It has been a very good weekend up until now for us.
'I'm happy with the car, with the team, and I think we did a good job, but as the others have said, maybe the weather tomorrow will be different than today.'
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