2012 Canadian Grand Prix The Canadian Grand Prix

Lap 3: Kovalainen is up to 15th place past Senna, then we have Ricciardo 17th, Vergne 18th and Maldonado pressing hard in 19th.

Lap 3: Massa gets the charge down the back straight and piles past Rosberg into the final corner. Massa now fifth, Rosberg sixth.

Lap 3: Button has made no progress on his soft tyres and is 10th, with Raikkonen 11th, Kobayashi 12th, Perez 13th and Hulkenberg 14th.

Lap 2: It's a clean first lap to the credit of the drivers. Behind the frontrunners di Resta is seventh with Grosjean eighth and Schumacher ninth.

Lap 2: Massa tries an outside move on Rosberg onto the pit straight but it's a hard one to make stick and the Ferrari slots in behind the Mercedes.

Lap 2: Not the best start from Alonso but he's muscled back into third, while Webber is back past Rosberg, who is under pressure from Massa.

Lap 2: Big movers: Kovalainen is up to 16th and Maldonado is 19th.

Lap 1: Vettel leads from Hamilton, Alonso, Webber and Rosberg as they head down to the hairpin for the first time.

Lap 1: Vettel drops the hammer and is away quicker than Hamilton. Great start for the German with Hamilton second and Alonso third through Turn 2.

Lap 1: The five red lights go out and we are racing in Canada!

The front few rows are nicely in position and the pack is forming up behind them. Are you ready? We await the lights...

Vettel turns for home and leads the field towards the starting grid.

Audi's Le Mans stars are taking bets according to @AllanMcNish: "Dindo says Vettel to win, Bononomi says Hamilton, so I say Alonso......just for fun."

The crowd rises to cheer as the drivers head into the Casino hairpin. Vettel starts to take them down the penultimate straight.

Round Turn 5 and Vettel is already putting heat into his supersoft tyres. He heads down to the second chicane at Turn 8.

Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Perez, de la Rosa and Maldonado look to be matching Button's choice of soft rubber.

The formation lap begins in Montreal. Vettel answers the call and leads the field of 24 away from the grid.

The engines fire with a minute to the formation lap.

Nico Rosberg is advised on the team radio that he can shift the brake balance forward a little on the first lap if he needs to.

The safety car rumbles away to take up position as final preparations take place on the grid.

The formation lap for the Canadian Grand Prix is just five minutes away.

Just one DRS zone here, but it's a long one - all the way down the back straight - and could prove effective for overtaking today.

Button starts from 10th on the grid with the harder tyre compound on his car after using softs in qualifying. He could attempt a one stop.

Pirelli's soft and supersoft rubber is on hand this weekend and signs so far point to a more conventional race than some of the tyre-shreading spectacles so far this season.

Two stops looks a likely strategy for the front runners, with teams looking to evaluate where their drivers will feed back into the pack after the first pit visit, which should come after around 15 laps of full-tank running on the supersofts.

Tyre degradation was so low in cool temperatures on Friday that a one stop plan looked possible, however that could be trickier in the sunshine this afternoon.

Here's how the grid will line up today: Pos Driver Team 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 7. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 9. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 10. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 11. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 12. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 13. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 14. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 16. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 17. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 18. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 19. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 20. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 21. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 22. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault * 23. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth * Five-place penalty for a gearbox change

With the track temperature well beyond 40 Celsius, teams are very wary that tyre degradation could prove much higher than expected today.

Weather conditions are fine and dry around Quebec with plenty of sunshine. It will remain picture-perfect for the race, with air temperature rising to 26 degrees, while track surface temperature will climb through the mid-forties Celsius range.

A light south-easterly breeze is blowing this afternoon and will help to keep the spectators cool in the sun.

The safety car stands ready at the front of the grid, with a high chance of seeing the big Mercedes in action this afternoon.

It's tight at the top of the drivers' standings after six fascinating rounds of the season so far: World Championship standings, round 6: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Alonso 76 1. Red Bull-Renault 146 2. Vettel 73 2. McLaren-Mercedes 108 3. Webber 73 3. Ferrari 86 4. Hamilton 63 4. Lotus-Renault 86 5. Rosberg 59 5. Mercedes 61 6. Raikkonen 51 6. Williams-Renault 44

Vettel

Hello everyone and welcome to AUTOSPORT Live for coverage and rolling updates from round seven in this year's FIA Formula 1 world championship - the Canadian Grand Prix from the Ile Notre Dame in Montreal.

Sebastian Vettel returned to the front and claimed the 32nd pole position of his career yesterday. He is set for the shortest drag race of the season to Turn 1 against a determined Lewis Hamilton this afternoon, while Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber will get amongst the action from the second row.

Nico Rosberg starts fifth in the Mercedes and Felipe Massa will hope to continue his recent turnaround in form from sixth on the grid. Romain Grosjean and Paul di Resta occupy row four, and then we find two drivers who didn't get a second run against the clock in the final segment of qualifying - Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button.

Morning news comes from Williams, where the team changed Pastor Maldonado's gearbox yet again. He drops five places on the grid and will start from the outside of row 11.