Lewis Hamilton takes pole position for McLaren at Canadian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton produced a stunning final qualifying lap in Montreal to break Red Bull's stranglehold on pole position this season. For the 18th time in his career and the third consecutive time here he won pole, and then pushed his car back towards the pits in front of screaming spectators because he had run out of fuel. He described the lap as "absolutely wicked" on the team radio. He said afterwards: "It was overwhelming and a great start to the weekend. It brings back so many memories of winning my first grand prix here three years ago. I damaged the car in practice and they fixed it in no time. It's a reflection of their hard work. It's a fantastic result for the team. I was just so pleased to get another lap in at the end." McLaren were, though, fined Can$10,000 (£6,800) and reprimanded for not getting Hamilton's car back to the pits on time after qualifying. Hamilton's first pole position of the year for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix relegated the Red Bull pair of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel to second and third on the grid, with Fernando Alonso fourth and Hamilton's team-mate Jenson Button, who has not looked his old self this weekend, in fifth place. But McLaren will be hoping for an early safety car tomorrow afternoon because Hamilton will be starting the race with the soft tyres he used for qualifying and will be aiming to run most of the race on the prime tyre. The Red Bulls will be on hard tyres from the start. Commenting on his decision to push his own car home before the marshals arrived he said: "It was a unique experience and it gave me more time to acknowledge the great support we always get out here." In Q1, apart from the obvious six drivers from Lotus, HRT and Virgin, Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi was the one to miss out on getting through. The big surprise in Q2 was that Michael Schumacher failed to qualify for the final session after making a mistake on the last chicane on his last lap, a low point in a generally disappointing season. He was once again thoroughly out-qualified by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg. But it was in Q3 that the afternoon caught fire. Webber appeared to have stolen in for another pole before Hamilton's breathtaking response which sent the crowd wild. Rain is forecast at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve tomorrow and according to Button that will bring danger to a race in which there is already very little margin for driver error. Button said today: "It's pretty scary here in the wet. It's very slippery here in any conditions and you are running a low downforce. I'm sure people will put a little bit of downforce on if it's wet but you still want good straight-line speed. It's going to be tough, definitely, around here in the wet." Some forecasts are predicting rain at the start of the race – though others say it will be dry – and Button added: "The asphalt is very slippery as well. It's different to most places. And, as I said, you're on low downforce. The kerbs are very slippery as well and you have to use kerbs round here so you're always in a very difficult situation where there's very little grip. It's tricky. I hope it's dry this weekend. I think we'll be quick – in the dry or the wet. But I think it will be good if it's dry." After a desperately tedious opening round, in Bahrain in March, rain has sprinkled its blessing over most of the subsequent races, helping to make this year's competition a compelling spectacle. Montreal, however, is usually exciting enough without any props. With its long, quick straights and chicanes this is one of the fastest and most punishing tracks, especially for the brakes. Today was another drizzly morning and even yesterday it was difficult to find grip here. Hamilton described the circuit as "an ice rink" then and Vettel said: "The secret here is the tyres; everyone was sliding around a bit – it was more like rally-cross than Formula One." Renault's Robert Kubica, meanwhile, who crashed here in 2007 – the race in which Hamilton won his first F1 victory – and was the winner in 2008, described the grip as the worst he could recall in his entire career. In the final practice session Kubica again complained to his team that his tyres had no grip, while Felipe Massa's Ferrari sent sparks flying when he clashed with a wall on Turn 7. But in the morning Hamilton, at least, found the circuit more to his liking. He put in the fastest time, followed by Webber, and was able to replicate that form in the afternoon. He glanced a wall but did not appear to sustain any major damage. A big crowd is expected tomorrow in this passionate racing city, especially as there was no race here last year, and there were excited street parties on Friday night which extended well into the early hours. The entire city is a shrine to Gilles Villeneuve, the man who was possibly the fastest racing driver of them all and who was killed in a crash in 1982. Today the Ferrari 312T4, which Villeneuve drove to second place here in 1979, was seen going round the track in the Historic Grand Prix.