The London Daily News

By Stephen Burns Motor Sport Editor

Lewis Hamilton became the first non Red Bull driver to achieve pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix and completed a hat trick of wins on his third visit to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

From the lights Hamilton was first into turn one with the Red Bull of Vettel close behind. Webber's sister car had been demoted five places for changing a gear box after qualifying. Alonso was third from the start closely tailed by Button in the second McLaren, while further back Massa's Ferrari and the Force India tangled several times forcing both to pit at the end of the first lap.

By the fourth lap Hamilton led Vettel by a second and behind third placed Alonso Button was about to be passed by Webber. After being passed by the Australian Button was soon under pressure from the Renault of Kubica and was about to be passed by the Pole when he dived into the pits as the life drained from his soft tyres. By lap 10 Hamilton and Alonso had also stopped leaving the Red Bull duo out front led by Vettel, Michael Schumacher was third ahead of Sebastien Buemi in the Torro Rosso. Alonso was ahead of Hamilton by way of a battle along the pitlane after their stops, Kovalainen was giving Lotus their best showing of the season in seventh between the two McLarens with Kubica and Sutil rounding out the top ten.

After Webber pitted from the lead on lap 14 Hamilton led the field from Alonso after a daring move down the inside. Button remained third with Vettel now heading the assault from the Red Bull team and Rosberg in ninth again out-performing his team mate Schumacher.

Alonso had closed the gap to Hamilton by lap 27 and was shaping up to pass the Hertfordshire born driver when Hamilton dived into pitlane for a second set of hard tyres leaving the Ferrari in the lead, Button and Vettel were next to stop, Vettel's gamble on running the soft tyres in the middle stint failing to pay dividends. As half distance passed Webber led but still had to stop to change to the soft tyres, the McLarens of Hamilton and Button sandwiched Alonso's Ferrari in third with Vettel now fifth. Buemi was sixth with the hard charging Renault of Kubica close behind. The Mercedes of Rosberg was still ahead of team mate Schumacher till the the German headed to the pit for fresh rubber.

With 50 laps completed Hamilton took the lead as Webber's Red Bull was struggling with badly worn tyres. It looked like he would lose a further place to Alonso but the Aussie dived in for fresh tyres at the end of the lap. He re-joined in fifth with 19 laps to complete on tyres that up till now in the race had not lasted more than 15 laps. Massa had made solid progress after his early encounters but was again challenging Sutil in 11th . Button also made an aggressive pass on Alonso for second place as the pair came across a back marker but Massa's troubles where not yet complete for the afternoon. On lap 64 the Brazilian was in a position to challenge his former team mate Schumacher when the German forced the Ferrari wide, damaging the front wing in the process. This incident is one of several that the stewards will be investigating.
Schumacher continued to be a hunted man as the Force India's closed on the Mercedes as the tyres again began to give up and on the final lap both Liuzzi and Sutil both passed the German before the flag.