Lewis Hamilton secured his fourth pole position around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada and his 44th career pole with a blistering 1:14.393, beating team-mate Nico Rosberg by three-tenths.
Prior to qualifying it looked as though Ferrari could challenge Mercedes for the top spot on Saturday, but with Sebastian Vettel failing to escape Q3 due to engine trouble, it was left to Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finn however could only manage third, six-tenths adrift of Hamilton, but it was Raikkonen’s best qualifying of the season so far.
Williams’ Valtteri Bottas took fourth, narrowly missing out on third by less than a tenth, whilst the Lotus pairing of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado were also in contention with third to sixth covered by just over three-tenths.
Max Verstappen qualified 12th, but a 15-place grid penalty will push him down to last, plus a ten-second penalty will be applied for the race.
Fernando Alonso escaped Q3 and eventually qualified 14th, but team-mate Jenson Button didn’t even take part due to ERS-related problems on his McLaren-Honda.
Button will start from the pit lane, pending his inclusion in the race which is likely a formality if McLaren can get his car ready for the race on Sunday.
| # | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
| 01. | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:14.393 | ||
| 02. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:14.702 | ||
| 03. | K. Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:15.014 | ||
| 04. | V. Bottas | Williams | 1:15.102 | ||
| 05. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 1:15.194 | ||
| 06. | P. Maldonado | Lotus | 1:15.329 | ||
| 07. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:15.614 | ||
| 08. | D. Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:16.079 | ||
| 09. | D. Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:16.114 | ||
| 10. | S. Perez | Force India | 1:16.338 | ||
| 11. | C. Sainz Jr | Toro Rosso | 1:16.042 | ||
| 12. | M. Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:16.245 | ||
| 13. | M. Ericsson | Sauber | 1:16.262 | ||
| 14. | F. Alonso | McLaren | 1:16.276 | ||
| 15. | F. Nasr | Sauber | 1:16.620 | ||
| 16. | S. Vettel | Ferrari | 1:17.344 | ||
| 17. | F. Massa | Williams | 1:17.886 | ||
| 18. | R. Merhi | Manor | 1:19.133 | ||
| 19. | W. Stevens | Manor | 1:19.157 | ||
| 20. | J. Button | McLaren | No Time |
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