An emotional Lewis Hamilton hailed a near-perfect lap after he matched the pole position tally of his childhood hero Ayrton Senna in Canada on Saturday. Only Michael Schumacher has more poles than Hamilton in the sport's long history.
"I am speechless", added the Briton as he was interviewed after receiving the helmet on track.
It was a rough afternoon for Romain Grosjean of the Haas team, who spun out three times and told his crew "I'm starting to get a bit fed up". "So to match him, and to receive this, is the greatest honor".
The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas was third, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari, with the two Red Bull Racing cars of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo completing the top six on the grid for the race that begins at 10pm UAE time.
"He (Hamilton) was the better man today but I am not entirely happy", said the German, victor of three of six races so far, compared to Hamilton's two. It was a close battle with Ferrari - they were so quick, as they have been all year, but I was gunning and pushing.
"It was a sexy lap", he beamed.
Hamilton will start from the very front of a Formula One race for the 65th time in his career after his phenomenal effort left rival Sebastian Vettel in the shade. "The vehicle has been very good so far, it should be good here as well, but as I've just said there is no guarantee". You can only hope and imagine that it's going to go well and sometimes it doesn't, but the lap started beautifully, and I just built it, smoothly, no mistakes. "I remember coming home from school and putting on the videotape of Ayrton, so it's really odd to think that I'm here and I have that many poles". I think it was the colour of the helmet.
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Ferrari had sealed a one-two in the final practice session, but Vettel, who leads Hamilton in the world championship standings by 25 points after his victory in the streets of Monaco a fortnight ago, was ultimately unable to best a time of 1:11.459. "It's a place I love and I really do love this track".
Hamilton beat that mark with a 1:12.692 with just under eight minutes remaining in the session, and Bottas beat it fractionally later at 1:12.685.
"The fact that I've now reached him in that area, I just can't believe it".
It set up the stage for a Q3 thriller between the Mercedes and Ferrari teams, with the previous four races having seen each of their four drivers having scored one pole.
Lewis' pole lap of 1:11.459s is the fastest ever lap of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. "Now the race is tomorrow".
"Our family is very happy with his achievements and I'm sure Ayrton would be in Montreal to deliver this special gift, absolutely happy in seeing his record being equalled by a driver as talented as Lewis is".
Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso, who skipped the last race in Monaco to run in the Indianapolis 500, cut the morning session short when he pulled to a stop on the track.
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