Hamilton takes pole position ahead of Ferrari pair

Source: Agencies  |   2008-10-18  |     ONLINE EDITION

CHAMPIONSHIP leader Lewis Hamilton put himself in prime position to claim the Formula One title this weekend by taking pole position today for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Hamilton set a best time of 1 minute, 36.303 seconds, and will start tomorrow's race ahead of Ferrari pair Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, who were second- and third-fastest.

Hamilton leads Massa by five points in the drivers' championship with two races left in the season. To clinch the title here, he would need to finish on the podium and gain six more points than the Brazilian.

The front row for China is the same as the previous race in Japan, where Hamilton braked too late, forced Raikkonen off at the first corner and consequently received a pit drive-through penalty and finished outside the points.

Renault's Fernando Alonso, who has won the past two grands prix and had vowed to try his best to help Massa win the title, will start from fourth on the grid.

BMW's Robert Kubica, who still has slim hopes of snatching the title, put in his worst qualifying performance of the season and finished in 12th spot, complaining of understeer.

Hamilton had been dealing with widespread criticism for his decision making in Japan, and accusations of dangerous driving from his rivals, but shrugged off that pressure to perform "as close as I could get to a perfect lap."

"You can see from my result that I'm dealing with it quite well," he said, having earned pole position for the seventh time this season and 13th time in his short career. "I didn't have anything hanging over me or anything else in my mind expect for doing a good lap."

Hamilton and McLaren had displayed near faultless form all race weekend, topping the timesheets in all three sessions of qualifying and two of the three practice sessions.