Instead it was his McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who stole the spoils ahead of qualifying with a sensational last-minute time of 1:14.232.

Renault's Fernando Alonso added salt to the Montoya wound with the second fastest time of 1:14.670 at the chequer.

Montoya (1:14.745) was forced to settle for third, some half second off the pace, with the second Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella (1:14.746) close behind.

The top two teams continued to march away from the Montreal field with their rivals struggling to compete.

BAR was, yet again, the team to come closes with Takuma Sato finishing fifth fastest with a 1:14.883.

The next best man was Toyota's Ralf Schumacher (1:15.280) but the gap of over a second to the Raikkonen benchmark left plenty of reason for concern.

The German's brother Michael also had worries after he spun his Ferrari mid way through he session.

But he managed to get back on track before the 45-minute run ended and recorded a 1:15.316 to finish eighth.