Qualy: Hamilton knocks the Red Bulls from their perch

Lewis Hamilton seized the initiative in Canada in quite magnificent style, becoming the first non-Red Bull driver to sit atop the grid this season. Brilliantly exciting, fantastically entertaining and a session that whets the appetite for the main course tomorrow.

Round 1

Q1 was a largely uneventful affair, with the usual suspects from the new teams going out in the usual order, joined in this weekend’s guest slot by Kamui Kobayashi in his Sauber. It’s back to looking s..l...o...w again. In all honesty, it wasn’t even close.

In the one interesting item, the top teams all went out on their soft tyres in order to save the, quicker, harder tyres for later in qualifying and the race. Oh, and Hamilton was fastest. That’s it really, move along to Q2.

Out: Chandhok, Senna, di Grassi, Glock, Trulli, Kovalainen, Kobayashi

Round 2

Q2 was a rather more feisty affair, with the top cars trading fastest laps over the first part of the session. Towards the end of the session it was Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button and Liuzzi hanging around at the bottom end of the top 10. A great couple of laps for Liuzzi put him up to eighth, Button managed to pull something out of the bag as well, but it was Schumacher who felt the pressure, ending up twelfth, behind even Hulkenberg’s Williams. Hamilton fastest again.

Out: de la Rosa, Alguersuari, Buemi, Petrov, Schumacher, Hulkenberg, Barrichello

Round 3

Q3 was one of the most exciting session thus far this season. Hamilton put in a quite simply stunning lap to get past the two Red Bulls at the death to put an end to their dominance in qualifying.  Then there was the quite extraordinary sight of Hamilton running out of fuel on the circuit and having pushing his own car up towards the pit lane. A notable mention to Liuzzi, who got in amongst the big boys to start sixth.

Credit: Sutton Images www.suttonimages.com

Stay tuned to Badger throughout the weekend for more in depth analysis...