MONTREAL—Lewis Hamilton was set to resume his enthralling Formula One duel with Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in today’s Canadian Grand Prix, after finishing second to the German in final qualifying in Canada yesterday. The 29-year-old Brit will start from second on the grid after clocking a fastest lap of one minute, 14.953 seconds while Rosberg took pole with 1:14.874. Both drivers have accounted for all the victories on the circuit so far and the trend now seems set to continue with Mercedes locking out the front row. “Nico did a fantastic job today, so congratulations to him. Just wasn’t the greatest qualifying session this; sometimes you have good ones, sometimes you have bad ones,” Hamilton lamented. “But it’s great for the team that we have got the one-two in quail (qualification). A really fantastic performance by the team, so let’s hope we can make history tomorrow.”
The pair are coming off the controversial Monaco Grand Prix where they had a major bust-up over Rosberg’s incident in final qualifying, which ruined Hamilton’s chances of pole position.
Rosberg went on to win the event and knock Hamilton off the top of the F1 drivers standings. Hamilton said a win on Sunday would now be difficult, with the two Mercedes car being similar in speed. “It’s not that easy, especially with Nico being so fast, so it is going to be very difficult to overtake the same car as mine—especially when we’re so close in pace,” he conceded.
“So, we’ll do what I can but, of course, the thing tomorrow is to try to make sure we get as many points as we can.” Hamilton, whose parental grandparents hail from Grenada, lies second in the standings on 118 points but just four adrift of Rosberg. He is a three-time winner in Montreal but finished third last year. Defending champion Sebastien Vettel of Red Bull will start from the second row, alongside Williams’ Valtteri Bottas. (CMC)