It was Hamilton's third pole this year, his sixth in Canada -- equalling the record of German Michael Schumacher -- and the 65th of his career.
Lewis Hamilton was both stunning and stunned on Saturday when he reeled off a set of record-breaking laps to claim pole position for Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix and was then given one of his hero Ayrton Senna's race helmets.
Ferrari's Sebatian Vettel pushed the Briton all the way - at one point just four-thousandths of a second separated the pair, before Hamilton found even more speed as the clocked ticked down in the top 10 shootout.
Wolff said Hamilton benefited from Mercedes altering its tyre preparation strategy midway through Q2 - opting do only one slow lap to build tyre temperature after the out-lap, rather than two - but confirmed Mercedes had made no radical set-up changes heading into qualifying. "Ayrton is the one who inspired me to be where I am. To equal him; I just can't believe it". For many of you, Ayrton was your favourite driver.
"I am honoured to be honoured by that family and honestly I couldn't be happier". I just can't believe it.
Hamilton spoke of how emulating Senna's pole tally was a target after matching his 41 race wins, and said it was particularly special to do it in his "most difficult" season as Mercedes battle Ferrari for F1 supremacy. I already felt like I was at the limit of the auto so we sat down and studied to see if we could squeeze out any more juice from it, which we did.
Eddie Hearn says judge got Ryan Burnett and Lee Haskins mixed up
Burnett has put in the hard yards since joining up with trainer Adam Booth and he is convinced that now is his time to shine. All of his last five fights have gone the distance, as a more cerebral Burnett has appeared.
"I remember coming come home from school and putting on the video tape of Ayrton". And being that it is the most hard season, I would say, in my career, racing against these two great drivers, and Kimi. It was a sexy lap. "Montreal's been good to me over the years", said Hamilton. That changed in qualifying, however, with Valtteri Bottas topping Q1 before Lewis Hamilton moved to the top of the order for the final two sessions.
"The lap started perfectly, very smooth, no mistakes, built it up and then the last corner which has always been a strength of mine".
"I improved a little bit, but I couldn't make the lap very good, and I paid the price for it".
When asked how much Ferrari is pushing Mercedes, Hamilton said: "I think I would say more". "The first priority tomorrow will be to finish the race".
"My final lap worked perfectly - I could see my delta picking up and getting excited, but at the time I had no comprehension about the 65th - I forgot that, it was the here and now".
"The long runs seemed OK, but I think it will be close with Ferrari".
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