Lewis Hamilton put himself in the ideal position to bolster his world championship bid as he claimed pole position for today's Japanese Grand Prix. The Briton recorded the 12th pole of his career as he set a stunning time of 1min 18.404secs around the Fuji circuit.
Even better for the McLaren-Mercedes driver was that his main title rival Felipe Massa could do no better than fifth on the grid, after the Ferrari man made a mistake on his final lap of the qualifying session. Between the Brazilian and Hamilton are his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, the second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen and the Renault of Fernando Alonso. Massa is facing a tough task to try and get up the order and try and reduce his seven-point deficit to Hamilton in the standings.
Hamilton was delighted with his speed and said: "Going to Q3 (the final part of qualifying) we had already decided what our strategy would be and we believed it would be competitive and put us in a good position for the race. "We had very good pace here and starting in front of the Ferraris is great. If we can push forward with the strategy we have we should be OK." While a fifth victory of the season would be the ideal result for the Briton, he admitted that as long as he scored well and that he finished ahead of Massa he would be satisfied.
"I don't need to change anything, just keep the car on the road and score some good points," he explained of his tactics. Raikkonen had set the pace in the early stages of the final part of qualifying and looked set to claim pole when he lowered his time to 1.18.644 in the closing moments. But a determined Hamilton hit back and improved his previous best time by four tenths of a second to take his sixth top spot of the season.
A mistake in the middle sector of his lap wrecked Massa's chances. The Brazilian will now hope for a good start and that he is on a heavier fuel load then those in front of him. The race promises to be one of the most fascinating of the season with the title protagonists' teammates likely to play a significant role in proceedings. The world champion Raikkonen put his Ferrari on the front row for the first time since the French Grand Prix in June, and he will be expected to push Hamilton hard and try and prevent the Briton from disappearing ahead with Massa further down the order.
Kovalainen's key task will be to keep Massa behind him at the start and, with the rejuvenated Alonso and Renault, fresh from their surprise win in Singapore, also in the mix, expect some thrilling action in the opening laps of the race. The BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica, who still has a slim chance of taking the title, will start from sixth knowing he needs to finish ahead of Hamilton to stay in the hunt.
Toyota did a good job at their home race as their drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock filled up the fourth row, ahead of the Toro Rosso duo of Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais, who completed the top 10. David Coulthard, who retires at the end of the season, will start 11th for Red Bull after surprisingly out-qualifying teammate Mark Webber, while the Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima could do no better than 14th on the grid in his Williams-Toyota.
But it was Honda who were most disappointed as, at their home race, they finished only 17th and 18th, with Rubens Barrichello just ahead of Jenson Button gcaygill@thenational.ae