Lewis Hamilton dominated the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, leading from start to finish to cut Sebastian Vettel’s championship lead to just 12 points.

The Mercedes driver escaped the first lap drama, which saw Max Verstappen jump from fifth position to second, damaging Vettel’s front wing in the process as the German dropped to fourth by into Turn 1, behind Valtteri Bottas.

Unfortunately for the Dutchman, a battery issue early on forced him to retire, promoting Bottas into second, as Mercedes claimed their first 1-2 of the season with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo recovering after a slow start to the weekend and holding off a huge battle between the two Force India's to take third.

A huge accident for Carlos Sainz on the opening lap, as he collided with Romain Grosjean on the approach to Turn 3 and took out Felipe Massa in the process caused an immediate Safety Car.

When it pulled in, Vettel’s damaged wing finally broke forcing him to stop at the end of Lap 9, rejoining in last position.

After Verstappen's failure caused a brief Virtual Safety Car, Hamilton started to increase the gap at the front from his team-mate with Vettel recovering back up the order. caught with the battle to third place with Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, and Kimi

Ferrari decided to change strategies and go for a second pit-stop back on to the ultrasoft for both drivers which worked till Raikkonen faced a brake problem that forced him to drop pace in the final laps. As for Vettel, however, he caught up with the battle to third place with between Ricciardo, Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon.

Perez was asked to give the position to his quicker teammate behind but the Mexican driver refused to swap positions. That decision cost the team massively with Vettel able to overtake both cars and claim fourth with Perez holding off Ocon as Force India finished fifth and sixth

Hulkenberg overcame a bad start to finish eighth with Lance Stroll the local hero scoring his first points ever in F1 in front of his home crowd following a perfect drive the whole race to ninth.

Romain Grosjean completed the top 10, benefiting from Fernando Alonso being forced to retire 2 laps before the chequered flag with an apparent engine failure, preventing him from grabbing his first point and the first for the team in this season.

Jolyon Palmer just missed on his first points this season finishing 11^th as Kevin Magnussen, Marcus Ericsson, Stoffel Vandoorne and Pascal Wehrlein completed the race finishers.

The only other driver to not finish was Daniil Kvyat as he first failed to leave the grid on the formation lap and then picked up two penalties for not regaining his position in the queue on the way around, he then eventually retired with a mechanical issue.

Race Result - 70 Laps:

Sebastian Vettel led Kimi Raikkonen as Ferrari was able to grab the top two spots in the third and final practice of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Vettel set the fastest time of the weekend so far, a 1m12.572s, as the grip was marginally better than Friday allowing the times to drop noticeably.

Kimi Raikkonen came in second, three-tenths behind his team-mate as Lewis Hamilton completed the top 3 in the Mercedes, only marginally slower than the Finn in front.

Max Verstappen suggested he could be a factor in qualifying as he was able to split the Mercedes duo finishing fourth ahead of Valtteri Bottas.

Nico Hulkenberg left it late to claim a surprising sixth for Renault, easily their most competitive result of the weekend, followed by Felipe Massa in seventh, as the Brazilian continued his consistent form in the Williams.

Daniel Ricciardo came in eighth, completing the largest number of laps of anyone as he hoped to make up for the time lost yesterday following engine problems on Friday.

Esteban Ocon continued his solid performance this weekend in ninth as Carlos Sainz proved the competitiveness of the midfield making if four non-top three teams in the final five places of the top 10.

Daniil Kvyat followed his Toro Rosso team-mate in 11th as Fernando Alonso was able to clinch 12th spot for McLaren, albeit he would slip down the order in the closing minutes.

Sergio Perez struggled once again in 13th as did Haas with Romain Grosjean the lead of the two American cars in 14th, though the Frenchman was able to avoid spinning in the session after three on Friday.

Jolyon Palmer, Stoffel Vandoorne and Lance Stroll were all some way behind their team-mates in 15th, 16th and 18th, Stroll in particular will be hoping for better in front of his home crowd, as the two Sauber completed the field.

Fernando Alonso admitted P12 on the grid for Canadian Grand Prix is not the perfect result but satisfying nevertheless knowing the limited abilities of his car.

The Spaniard had been aiming to repeat the top 10 result he achieved in Friday practice but as fellow midfield teams turned up their engines, the McLaren-Honda slipped back to where Alonso has qualified for much of the year.

The double world achieved his best lap time on his final run of Q2, the same time Daniil Kvyat hit the barriers causing a puncture, when asked whether or not the incident affected his lap time Alonso replied: "No, not really, the lap was good, lap was clean, did the maximum, happy with the performance at the end.

"Obviously P12 is not ideal to start, but with the deficit here with the power, we know how much is in terms of timed laps, being 1.2 [seconds] from Hamilton in Q2, that’s definitely a very, very good performance for us and I’m extremely happy."

Looking forward to the race, Alonso admitted it will not be easy with the lack of power and efficiency from the power unit likely to be major obstacles.

"Well I mean there is not much you can do apart from trying to have a good exit from Turn 10 and then defend, but there are things you cannot defend, they will be side by side in the middle of the straight,” he claimed.

"Doubts for tomorrow, not only on power but fuel consumption will be very high, so we have some problems to solve but nothing we can do."

Retaining the fundamental aspects to Formula 1 will be a key factor when deciding what cost-cutting measures will be implemented in the coming years, says the managing director of motorsport, Ross Brawn.

The Briton, formerly chief engineer at Ferrari before going on to be team boss at Honda, his own Brawn GP outfit and then Mercedes until 2013, was drafted in by new majority shareholders Liberty Media to use his vast knowledge and experience to improve F1 going forward.

The cost and financial aspect is one of the main priorities the new leadership has set out, both in reducing the mammoth totals top teams spend and smaller teams are forced to in supply deals and development as well as trying to equalise the revenue distribution across the entire grid.

As Brawn highlighted, in a press conference alongside managing director of commercial Sean Bratches and CEO Chase Carey, the interests of all must be taken into consideration, meaning changes can't necessarily be about just helping the small teams.

"I think there is a circular process, to have a discussion about remuneration with the teams is difficult if you don't have concern about both sides," he explained.

"We've got to present how we see the sport going forward in terms of the investment the teams make because it's substantial. I think it's fair to say there's not a team in F1 that wouldn't welcome a reduction in costs, so those discussions have to go hand in hand and we're preparing our case and our proposals with the FIA to achieve that."

The 62-year-old also acknowledged that the sport will always have teams that are likely to be at the front whatever regulations and limits are put in place.

There is also a duty to ensure F1 remains one of the most advanced and innovative sport from a technological and developmental perspective.

"I think one thing I'd like to say is that we don't want to dumb F1 down," Brawn claimed. "I think F1 is so aspirational for the teams and we don't want all the teams exactly the same in the respect that there still should be the aspiration for the teams.

"There should still be the Ferraris, there should still be the Mercedes, there should still be the Red Bulls that teams aspire to beat.

"We don't want domination, we need an environment that a team that does a really good job can do well, but we don't want a situation where financial power enables a team to get a dominant position as has happened in the last three years."

Sebastian Vettel was disappointed after failing to secure pole position at the Canadian Grand Prix, yet he keeps high hopes for the race on Sunday.

The Ferrari had been most people's favourite heading into qualifying after leading in the final practice but, in a remarkable battle with Lewis Hamilton, had to settle for second following mistakes in his final run.

Losing pole did not end Vettel’s determination to win the race, however, saying he believes he has the pace to fight back on Sunday.

"I'm not so happy with the last run I had in qualifying," he admitted, "I would have loved to repeat the second run and find a little bit.

"I tried to push a bit hard, but then pushed too hard. I knew I had to improve, even if just by five thousandths.

"I thought we could step it up and find a bit of time. I lost a bit into Turn 2 and then lost two-tenths out of the second corner and then I knew I had to catch up, which I did until the end of the lap which I did to get the same as before.”

"Nevertheless the car was very good, I was happy this morning and we should be good in the race."

Ferrari and Mercedes used different methods to try and extract the optimum performance from the tyres, as Hamilton chose two warm-up laps and Vettel just one.

But the German believes his team made the right call managing the qualifying runs and does not believe that a different set up would have changed the outcome.

"I was confident to go with the first lap," Vettel proceeded "You saw the lap times getting better. I was confident we made the right call.

"We always expected Mercedes to be very quick, especially in the last segment. Lewis did a better job today and got a good lap. He was the better man today.”

Lance Stroll admits it was quite an experience to run in front of his home crowd for the first time on Friday in Canada.

The Montreal native has been coming under pressure to improve in recent races, but as practice got underway, the first Canadian since former world champion Jacques Villeneuve to take to the circuit named after his father Gilles took a moment to soak in the atmosphere.

"It's a great track, I really like the rhythm and it's just good to be home," the 18-year-old said. "It was a good day getting used to the track, but I have to treat it as just another race at the end of the day as everything stays the same. However, it's great to have those Canadian flags in the grandstands.

"On the out lap I looked at the fans and saw them waving and cheering and that is really cool."

As for his performance, it was a better start than at most races as he claimed 12th in the morning. Stroll would slip back to 17th in the afternoon but revealed there was a reason for that.

"I didn't get a chance to put on the ultrasoft, so we will see what they are like tomorrow, he said. "We were focused on some other things, so it was just part of the plan. It's still quite close in the midfield, as it has been all year, and everyone has been doing different programmes, so we will see how it is in qualifying."

As for team-mate Felipe Massa, he again will lead the Williams charge around a venue at which the team has had good recent success. The Brazilian highlighted that by claiming sixth in the afternoon and was very pleased with how his Friday panned out.

"I think we've had a very good day," the 36-year-old claimed. "The car felt good on both new and used tyres. I was very happy with the feeling I had in the car. Everything we tried on set-up seemed to improve it even more.

"We just need to keep everything under control for tomorrow, and hopefully we can be as competitive as we were today."

Lewis Hamilton believes this year's fight with Ferrari is forcing him to constantly improve and be at his best.

That was proven in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, as a mighty battle with Sebastian Vettel saw both men driving to the limit and beyond, with the Mercedes driver coming out on top to claim pole position.

The three-time champion has already claimed he is enjoying a multi-team scrap much more than the past three when his then teammate, Nico Rosberg, was his only challenger with other teams failing to reach the Mercedes pace.

Reflecting on how this year is impacting him as a driver, he admits the wavering momentum is forcing to dig deeper into his talents

“I think I would say more now," he said when asked how hard he was pushing himself. "It’s a little bit more so perhaps for us because we are having a car that is not working everywhere. It’s a great car but it’s a trickier car to set up.

“It appears from the outside that the Ferrari generally is easier - whilst they’re still working hard - it works everywhere, so it seems.

“If they’re the same level and we’re more up and down all the time, for sure it puts a lot of emphasis on us just pulling together more than ever.”

Talking about how this battle has affected how the team works, Hamilton admitted: “So I think as a team we’ve been closer and more united than we’ve ever been. We’ve been utilising every engineer to the absolute max and utilising everyone’s ability, which is key.

“In the five years I’ve been with this team I’ve never seen such great teamwork and communication, we’re all just talking more than ever and it’s great today to be able to see the fruits of that hard work and it's not just chatting for nothing.”

Looking forward, Hamilton did not rule out a Ferrari fight back in the race on Sunday, believing it will be a close battle for the top spot.

“It’s going to continue to be a tough, tough, tough race between the Ferraris because they are so strong," he said, "today we’ve shown we can have an answer if we do the right things.

“Ferrari have great single lap pace but very strong pace in the races. It was a close battle last year and I can only imagine tomorrow will be pushing all the way to the end. I’m excited about it.”

Romain Grosjean was left disgruntled after spinning multiple times during second practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Haas F1 driver once again aired his displeasure over the radio declaring himself "fed up" after a third spin following two on consecutive laps at the same corner earlier in his run.

A lack of grip plagued all the drivers on Friday with most also losing control at Turns 1,2,6 or 7 at some point on the very dusty track. For the Frenchman, however, his issues went further.

"Yes, [I was fed up] because I spun three times without understanding it," he said. "We saw a lot of spins, but for mine, it was particular things that we'll sort.

"Basically it was the brake-by-wire not responding as it should. When you're going on new tyres and you're spinning, of course, you're going 'what the hell is that?' because I'm fed up of spinning - I'm not here to spin.

"But it was three laps out of 40, the rest went pretty well. The tarmac is pretty old as well, so it doesn't have the grip."

Giving his view, Lewis Hamilton believes the different tyres and the nature of the 2017 cars are also making it more tricky.

"It feels very much the same as the previous years, it's just faster," the three-time champion said.

"But actually the tyres are worse, the car is sliding a lot more.

"While we have more grip [from aero], the tyres are much harder, maybe too stiff. You see people spinning all over the place today because the grip is quite poor."

Lewis Hamilton produced a new lap record to beat Sebastian Vettel and secure pole for the Canadian Grand Prix in one of the most intense qualifying sessions in a long time.

The Mercedes driver went out early in the final session and became the first driver to get below the 1m12 mark around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, that would appear good enough for pole but Vettel hit back with four minutes to go, moving into second and setting a time just 0.004s slower.

Hamilton would respond on his final lap, however, dropping the car even further to a 1m11.459 with a jaw-dropping lap, while Vettel tried to fight back his effort came up three-tenths short as he had to settle for second.

With this pole, Hamilton matched his hero Ayrton Senna’s pole total with 65, tying them in second place only three poles away from Michael Schumacher.

Valtteri Bottas came in third followed by fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen in another close battle, but some seven-tenths off the pace.

Red Bull, as expected, was the third best team with Max Verstappen finishing just ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fifth and sixth, as Felipe Massa was able to keep his Williams ahead of the developing Force Indias.

Sergio Perez recovered from a difficult final practice to beat Esteban Ocon into eighth with the Frenchman one tenth behind. Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 after a satisfying qualifying session for the German.

Daniil Kvyat hit the wall exiting Turn 7 as he trying to make it to Q3, causing a puncture, he still qualified 11th, however, followed by Fernando Alonso, who produced a great lap to take 12th ahead of a disappointed Carlos Sainz.

Romain Grosjean had to settle for 14^th place after struggling to find grip throughout the whole weekend with Jolyon Palmer completed the Q2 order in 15th, but a full second slower than the best time set by Hulkenberg, five places ahead of him in the sister Renault.

Q1 ended with a crash for Pascal Wehrlein after losing control under braking on the approach to Turn 1, hitting the barriers. The accident caused yellow flags forcing drivers to abandon their last flying laps, including Stoffel Vandoorne in 16th and local favourite Lance Stroll in 17th.

Kevin Magnussen was the biggest disappointment, only qualifying 18th in the Haas, outqualifying the Saubers, with Marcus Ericsson 19th and Wehrlein 20th.

Fernando Alonso is hoping he can repeat his qualifying heroics from Barcelona after finishing seventh in Practice 2 in Canada.

The Spaniard used the improved track conditions late in the session, as many were completing race simulations, to complete a low fuel run and jump his McLaren ahead of the likes of Force India, to match the position he achieved in Spain a month ago.

It was a result that even the double world champion admitted was "a little bit" surprising.

“We know our positions are a bit further down, around 10th, 12, 13th,” he said, “but sometimes we manage to put in good laps like we did in Barcelona with P7 so we will try tomorrow."

The lap also put a high note on the end of a somewhat difficult day for Alonso, returning to the F1 track after his Indy 500 appearance. The reason he was late with his flying lap on the ultrasoft tyres was due to a stoppage late in the morning that had left him out of sync with the other drivers on their respective programs.

“I wanted to come to the pit lane to sort the problem but we have an engine issue, a hydraulic problem," he said, explaining what had happened earlier. "So we lost FP1 and then most of FP2 because we didn’t have time enough to prepare the car."

Due to the limited track time, however, Fernando added: “I think the car is not perfectly tuned and the set-up has some room to improve performance so even with those handicaps we are in the top 10, so happy for that. There is more to come tomorrow.

“We know the circuit, we race here many years we should be able to attack qualifying and the race.

"The biggest priority is to be top 10 in the race and for that we need to make a good qualifying tomorrow.”