Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took pole for the second year running in Montreal on Saturday to increase his chances of taking the championship lead after Sunday’s race.
Vitaly Petrov will start 19th for Caterham after beating Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne in a promising session for the Russian driver’s team.
Vettel’s time of 1 minute 14.661 showed Red Bull’s pace in Canada, with his nearest challenger Lewis Hamilton 0.27 seconds slower, a big margin among the Formula One leaders.
"I was able to get a little bit quicker each time. It looked tight in the beginning but in the end we could make a bit more of a difference," the German said in televised comments.
"I'm looking forward to the race. I think we have a good car."
McLaren’s Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando challenged the reigning champion’s time with their last laps, but faded late in the lap and will start second and third respectively.
Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber’s fourth place diminishes his hopes of a second win in a row after victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, while Felipe Massa’s revival at Ferrari after a poor start to the season continues apace with sixth on the grid.
Two relative newcomers in Lotus’ Romain Grosjean and Force India’s Paul di Resta took seventh and eighth, ahead of two former champions in the shape of ninth-placed Michael Schumacher for Mercedes, and Hamilton’s tenth-placed teammate Jenson Button.
Of the six former champions on the grid, Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen was the only one to failed to reach the top-ten shootout, qualifying 12th.
Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado’s qualifying ended early after he slid into the wall at the last corner in the second session, and the Venezuelan will start 17th.
Petrov qualified behind his Caterham teammate Heikki Kovalainen for the sixth time in seven races.
Caterham’s quest to break out of the bracket of the three so-called new teams at the back of the grid was boosted as both Kovalainen and Petrov were faster than Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne.
The Russian-owned Marussia team will start with Timo Glock in 22nd and Charles Pic in 23rd after both were outqualified by HRT veteran Pedro de la Rosa, who first raced at the Canadian Grand Prix in 1999.
The grid:
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
3. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
4. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
5. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
6. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
7. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
8. Paul di Resta (Force India)
9. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)
10. Jenson Button (McLaren)
11. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)
12. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
13. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)
14. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
15. Sergio Perez (Sauber)
16. Bruno Senna (Williams)
17. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)
18. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
19. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham)
20. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)
21. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)
22. Timo Glock (Marussia)
23. Charles Pic (Marussia)
24. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT)
