Lewis Hamilton clinched his second successive pole at the Canadian Grand Prix with an awesome drive in Saturday's qualifying session.

The McLaren driver clocked one minute 17.886 seconds to finish ahead of BMW's Robert Kubica, who stunned the Ferraris with a time of 1:18.498secs.

The Pole finished ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who will start on the second row with Renault's Fernando Alonso.

Williams' Nico Rosberg starts in fifth, while Ferrari's Felipe Massa is sixth.

It was yet another assured drive from Hamilton, who had dominated from the start of the practice session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

The 23-year-old clocked the fastest time on the first of Saturday's qualifying stages and led throughout until Kubica's stunning lap a minute before the end of the session.

However, Hamilton surpassed the BMW driver's time, to the delight of the McLaren garage.

Team-mate Heikki Kovalainen will start in seventh place on Sunday's starting grid. Jenson Button will start at the back after he was forced to withdraw his Honda because of gearbox problems.

The Briton will share the back row with Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel, who did not take part in qualifying after ploughing into the wall during final practice.

Hamilton topped the timesheets in all three qualifying sessions in Montreal with a characteristic display of attacking but assured driving.

Ferrari desperately tried to close down the world championship leader in the dying minutes but, though they were fast through the first two sectors, they could not match the McLaren man's pace.

Kubica, who suffered a high-speed crash at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last year, came closest to toppling Hamilton as he clocked 1:18.498 with just seconds left.

But Hamilton, who had just started his final hot lap, comfortably eclipsed that mark to take his eighth career pole.

Nico Rosberg, who was fastest in final practice, claimed fifth spot ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen.

BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, Honda's Rubens Barrichello and Mark Webber for Red Bull completed the top 10.

Qualifying results for the Canadian Grand Prix:

1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren - Mercedes 1:17.886
2. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:18.498
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:18.735
4. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:18.746
5. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams 1:18.844
6. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:19.048
7. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1:19.089
8. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:19.633
9. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1:20.848
10. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull - Renault 1:17.523
11. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:18.031
12. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams 1:18.062
13. David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull - Renault 1:18.238
14. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:18.327
15. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:18.393
16. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:18.916
17. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Ferrari 1:19.108
18. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India - Ferrari 1:19.165
19. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:23.565
20. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso - Ferrari no time