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Nico Rosberg beats Lewis Hamilton to Canadian Grand Prix pole

Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg took pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday, with Mercedes team-mate and closest rival Lewis Hamilton again beaten into second place at a favourite circuit.

The pole was the seventh in seven races for the sport’s dominant team who have won every Grand Prix so far this season and finished one-two in the last five.

After controversy surrounded Rosberg’s pole in Monaco two weeks ago, the German left no room for argument in another psychological blow for Hamilton on a sunny afternoon at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. “I expect it will be between the two of us for now,” said Rosberg. “Of course there might be a surprise.

“I’ve come here knowing that I’ve won the last race. It just helps a bit. Lewis obviously had that winning streak and to bring that to an end was important,” said the German, whose Monaco win ended Hamilton’s run of four in a row.

Rosberg, who is four points clear of Hamilton but has never finished higher than fifth in Canada, pulled out a stunning lap of one minute 14.874 seconds to beat the Briton by 0.079.

“I know it’s a track where he’s very strong,” said Rosberg. “I’m very happy that it worked out.”

He had already thrown down the gauntlet to his team mate by going fastest with his first flying lap of the third and final session on the island layout and Hamilton failed to meet the challenge.

“The car was good, I just didn’t drive it that well,” Hamilton, a three times winner in Montreal including the first grand prix triumph of his career in 2007, told reporters. “Nico did a fantastic job today, so congratulations to him.

“It just wasn’t the greatest qualifying session. Sometimes you have good ones, sometimes you have bad ones. But it’s great for the team that we’ve got the one-two and a really fantastic performance by the team. Let’s hope we can make history tomorrow.”

In Monaco, another track Hamilton loves, the Briton had suggested Rosberg deliberately brought out yellow warning flags at the end of qualifying in an incident that forced the Briton to slow and denied him the chance of going fastest. The pair left the principality with talk of a feud simmering between them but they have been at pains to play down talk of broken relationships and frostiness since then.