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Sebastian Vettel storms to Canadian Grand Prix pole position

Sebastian Vettel grabbed his second pole position of the 2012 Formula 1 season with a comfortable 0.3-second margin in Canadian Grand Prix qualifying

The Red Bull driver's cushion was surprisingly ample given that just 0.8s had covered 17 cars in Q1 and the whole Q2 field had been within a second.

Vettel started Q3 on provisional pole with a 1m13.905s and was not headed thereafter, as he improved to 1m13.784s on his second run to put himself further out of reach.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton will join Vettel on the front row, having grabbed second from Fernando Alonso's Ferrari with his second Q3 attempt. Alonso looked like a pole threat until a disappointing final sector on his best lap left him to settle for third.

Mark Webber completes the top four in the second Red Bull, followed by Nico Rosberg in the leading Mercedes - four places ahead of team-mate Michael Schumacher - and Felipe Massa's Ferrari in sixth.

Romain Grosjean reached Q3 for Lotus and claimed seventh but his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen did not make it into the pole shoot-out, only managing 12th in Q2.

Force India's Paul di Resta made his second Q3 appearance of the year and earned eighth on the grid.

Jenson Button avoided a third consecutive Q2 elimination, but only just. The McLaren driver sat 10th at the end of the second segment and looked in grave danger of being edged out by Pastor Maldonado, only for the Spanish GP winner to spin his Williams into the wall at the final chicane, leaving him 17th. Button will start 10th, having spoiled one set of super softs by locking up.

The second Williams of Bruno Senna was only one place ahead of Maldonado in 16th. Also out in Q2 were both Saubers - with Kamui Kobayashi just 0.008s shy of a Q3 spot in 11th and Sergio Perez back in 15th - the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo.

After his morning practice crash, Ricciardo's team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne's underwhelming Saturday continued as a mistake on his best lap saw the Frenchman exiting qualifying in Q1 for the fourth time in his first seven grands prix. Not only was he knocked out, but Vergne was outqualified by both Caterhams and will start 20th.

In another Q1 surprise, Pedro de la Rosa put his HRT 21st on the grid, beating both Marussias.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap   
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m13.784s         
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m14.087s + 0.303
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m14.151s + 0.367
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m14.346s + 0.562
5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m14.411s + 0.627
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m14.465s + 0.681
7. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m14.645s + 0.861
8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m14.705s + 0.921
9. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m14.812s + 1.028
10. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m15.182s + 1.398
Q2 cut-off time: 1m14.680s Gap ** 11. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m14.688s + 0.501 12. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m14.734s + 0.547 13. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m14.748s + 0.561 14. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m15.078s + 0.891 15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m15.156s + 0.969 16. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m15.170s + 0.983 17. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m15.231s + 1.044 Q1 cut-off time: 1m15.552s Gap * 18. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m16.263s + 1.602 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m16.482s + 1.821 20. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m16.602s + 1.941 21. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m17.492s + 2.831 22. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m17.901s + 3.240 23. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m18.255s + 3.594 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m18.330s + 3.669 107% time: 1m19.887s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2

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