Rosberg beats Hamilton to Canadian GP pole

Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix after a stellar performance in the top 10 qualifying shootout.

Rosberg's Mercedes team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, had dominated practice, setting the fastest time of Friday and then going quickest on Saturday morning, meaning he went into qualifying as the hot favourite at a track where he thrives.

Hamilton had topped both Q1 and Q2 but was outpaced by Mercedes team-mate Rosberg by 68 thousandths of a second on their first runs in Q3 after hitting traffic in the final sector.

Rosberg then made a small improvement on his second run, but it was not necessary as a poor middle sector meant that Hamilton was unable to better the German's earlier time.

Sebastian Vettel was best-of-the-rest, jumping from sixth to third with a strong final lap.

Williams had looked set to be the closest challenger to Mercedes, but Valtteri Bottas was unable to improve on his final run and ended up fourth.

His team-mate Felipe Massa was fifth fastest, just ahead of the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

Fernando Alonso was seventh, his Ferrari not quite showing the pace to threaten the top six.

Jean-Eric Vergne was fastest of those who only attempted one run in Q3, shading McLaren's Jenson Button to eighth place by two-hundredths of a second.

Kimi Raikkonen was the slowest of the Q3 runners, securing 10th place on the grid.

All of the top 10 will start the race on super-soft rubber thanks to new-for-2014 rules dictating that drivers must use the set they set their best Q2 time on.

Nico Hulkenberg missed out on a place in the top 10 shootout by just under half-a-tenth and will start 11th.

The second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen was 12th after failing to improve on his second run.

Sergio Perez, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat were 13th, 14th and 15th, with Sauber driver Adrian Sutil attempting only one run in Q2 as he had used two sets of super-softs in Q1, ending up 16th.

Pastor Maldonado was the fastest of those to be eliminated in Q1 after his Lotus ground to a halt in the closing stages.

He had just jumped Marussia pairing Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi before he hit trouble.

Bianchi was unable to attempt a second run in Q1 thanks to a car problem, while Chilton had to rely on the time posted on his first run because of incidents late in the session.

Kamui Kobayashi was the faster of the two Caterhams in 20th place after making a good improvement on his final run, although he will be hit with a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Team-mate Marcus Ericsson brought out a red flag with 16 seconds of Q1 remaining after crashing at the exit of the first chicane.

Esteban Gutierrez was unable to participate in qualifying thanks to chassis damage sustained in a crash during Saturday morning's free practice session.

The Sauber team is building up a car around a spare chassis for the Mexican for tomorrow's race.

Pos Driver                Team                 Time           Gap   
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m14.874s         
 2. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes             1m14.953s  +0.079s 
 3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m15.548s  +0.674s 
 4. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes    1m15.550s  +0.676s 
 5. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes    1m15.578s  +0.704s 
 6. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault     1m15.589s  +0.715s 
 7. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m15.814s  +0.940s 
 8. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault   1m16.162s  +1.288s 
 9. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m16.182s  +1.308s 
10. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari              1m16.214s  +1.340s 
Q2 cut-off time: 1m16.255s                                   Gap **
11. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m16.300s  +1.246s
12. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes     1m16.310s  +1.256s
13. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes 1m16.472s  +1.418s
14. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m16.687s  +1.633s
15. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault   1m16.713s  +1.659s
16. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari       1m17.314s  +2.260s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m18.235s                                Gap *
17. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault        1m18.328s  +2.578s
18. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari     1m18.348s  +2.598s
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari     1m18.359s  +2.609s
20. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault     1m19.278s  +3.528s
21. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault     1m19.820s  +4.070s
22. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari       no time


107% time: 1m21.052s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2