Button claims Montreal pole
Jenson Button announced his return to form in dramatic fashion today by claiming pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The 25-year-old has suffered a nightmare season so far, culminating in the team’s recent two-race ban but he erased those painful memories to take the second pole position of his Formula One career, sparking celebrations in the BAR-Honda garage.
Button’s lap time of one minute 15.217 seconds withstood the challenge of several high-profile rivals and left him on top and preparing to start from the front again.
World champion Michael Schumacher also enjoyed a return to the front, overcoming a poor first sector of his lap to clinch second as he chases Ferrari’s first win of the season.
Ferrari’s celebrations were cut short, however, when Rubens Barrichello failed to even start his lap after smoke plumed from his engine. He will start from the back.
World championship leader Fernando Alonso starts from third place in his Renault while title rival Kimi Raikkonen, who started qualifying as the favourite to take pole position, never looked a serious threat and was consistently slower throughout his lap.
The McLaren driver, who was denied victory at the Nurburgring by a last-lap crash, will start from seventh on the grid, although lap times today were influenced by fuel loads and Raikkonen can be expected to have more on board than many rivals.
Giancarlo Fisichella qualified fourth for Renault, with Juan Pablo Montoya fifth for McLaren and BAR’s Takuma Sato sixth.
Scotsman David Coulthard continued to struggle on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and he had to make do with 12th for Red Bull.
Home town hero Jacques Villeneuve delighted the Montreal crowd by briefly moving to the top of the timing sheets halfway through the session.
The Canadian has been under pressure from team boss Peter Sauber after a string of poor performances but he hit back in qualifying to outqualify team-mate Felipe Massa and claim eighth position.
Christian Klien suffered the handicap of being the first man out on track and his lap time suffered as a result.
With the running order for qualifying determined by the last race result, Klien’s return to a Red Bull race seat in place of Vitantonio Liuzzi was always likely to be hampered by an early qualifying slot and he ended up 16th.
The Austrian’s lap was quickly bettered by Mark Webber, who was second on track after crashing out at the first corner at the Nurburgring two weeks ago.
Webber made a slight error on his lap and faces an uphill task tomorrow from 14th on the grid.
Christijan Albers pushed his Minardi to the very limit in a stunning lap for Formula One’s perennial backmarkers to keep him away from the back row of the grid.
The Dutchman, who has started last three times this year, outqualified Klien’s Red Bull courtesy of a brave lap which saw him narrowly miss the concrete wall twice. He starts 15th.
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