Lewis Hamilton claimed his fifth pole position in Canada edging Nico Rosberg in a thrilling battle.
The world champion posted a 1m12.812 on his first flying lap in Q3, just six-hundredths of a second clear of his Mercedes teammate.
Before the session, it was all about whether Ferrari or Red Bull had the upgrades to match the Silver Arrows, but come the final shoot-out they were closer but still a fraction off.
Sebastian Vettel’s excellent lap secured third, less than two tenths behind Hamilton. The German beating Monaco polesitter Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull.
Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen were a few tenths further back in fifth and sixth, ahead of the two Williams as Montreal specialist Bottas pipped Felipe Massa.
Nico Hulkenberg claimed ninth for Force India ahead, of Fernando Alonso, as the Spaniard showed the progress McLaren continue to make.
At the start of qualifying, cool temperatures and the threat of rain meant Ferrari and Mercedes went out straight away in Q1.
With the ultrasoft tyres taking a little longer to warm up, they opted for two laps before going for a quick lap, indeed Vettel and Hamilton got involved in a little jousting for position before putting the hammer down.
Red Bull soon joined the circuit as everyone posted several fast laps on their first run, with Rosberg ending on top.
Attention then switched to the bottom of the timings where a crash in final practice meant Kevin Magnussen was unable to take part. He will start from last as the other Renault of Jolyon Palmer joined him in the Q1 drop-zone missing out by one-hundredth of a second.
He was one of a few victims caused by a late brush with the wall for Rio Haryanto. The Indonesian hit the wall exiting turn four resulting in a puncture, and later he pulled over to the side of the track, bring out a yellow flag.
He will start 21st but his team-mate Pascal Wehrlein was unlucky as Haryanto’s off prevented him from potentially making Q2 for the first time this year.
Instead, the DTM champion was 18th, with the two Sauber’s of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr behind him.
Into Q2 and Carlos Sainz brought out the first red flag of the session, after hitting the ‘wall of champions’ exiting the final chicane.
The Spaniard had looked a top ten contender but will start 16th.
At the front, Mercedes showed some incredible pace as both Hamilton and Rosberg posted 1m13.0 to lead by half a second from Ricciardo.
Ferrari was struggling to match their rivals but was able to squeak through as did Nico Hulkenberg with an excellent last-gasp effort to knock out his team-mate Sergio Perez.
The Mexican was 11th ahead of Jenson Button who had a slight lock-up at the hairpin which kept him 12th. Daniil Kvyat was 13th ahead of the two Haas’ as Gutierrez out-qualified Grosjean.
But at the front, it was a statement from Mercedes that, at least on the power circuits, they do still have the edge on the rest.
Ferrari and Red Bull can both feel equally positive about how close their lead drivers were able to get and now they are in the perfect position to attack in the race, where they are usually even stronger.
The threat of rain over the race would certainly spice up the action even more, but with the cold weather making tyre warm-up an issue, there is plenty of factors to conjure up an exciting race.
Hamilton might be favourite, due to his record at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but it’s far from a safe bet going into Sunday.
