F1: Hamilton in pole position

[4me2]

Britain's Lewis Hamilton pipped title rival Fernando Alonso to pole position for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.

Hamilton left it late in wet and misty conditions at Fuji Speedway to edge past McLaren team-mate Alonso with a lap of one minute 25.368 seconds.
The win boosts Hamilton's championship hopes as he leads Alonso by only two points with three races left.
Kimi Raikkonen's slim chances were hit by his third place, while Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa came in fourth.
Germany's Nick Heidfeld finished fifth, with Britain's Jenson Button impressing in his Honda to earn sixth spot on the grid after Nico Rosberg was demoted 10 places for changing his engine on Friday.
It was the Englishman's best qualifying performance since last year's Japanese Grand Prix, but David Coulthard will start in 12th and Anthony Davidson 19th.
A satisfied Hamilton said: "It was a good session for us, the whole weekend has started off a little bit better than others.

There's no difference between the teams in the wet or dry, the battle will be very close



McLaren's Fernando Alonso


"It was a good car today in tricky conditions. I'm very, very fortunate the team did a fantastic job in getting it set up right.
"When you're out there you don't really know where you are and they just timed it to perfection."
Hamilton said of his crucial final lap: "It was quite a good lap, I was happy with it. I improved, cleaned up a couple of corners."
Alonso was happy to claim second despite leading for most of the third qualifying session in Japan.
"Everything's going well and we're on the first row, which is quite important for the race," said Alonso.
"There's no difference between the teams in the wet or dry, the battle will be very close. We had the advantage in qualifying but over the race it may be different.
Hamilton (left) and Alsono celebrate being at the front of the grid


"I really enjoyed driving here at Fuji for the first time. I liked those conditions.
"I think for everybody it was quite an exciting qualifying because of the fog this morning."
Raikkonen revealed he had a slight mechanical problem that undermined his chances of grabbing pole.
"I had a small problem with the gearbox, which we can fix, so I had to back off," said Raikkonen.
"I'm confident we will have a good car in the race."
Button said he was hoping for rain to boost his chances of securing points.
"They were pretty tough conditions because the track was drying through the session and it was very greasy. It was tough to know what tyres to use but we did a great job choosing the tyres," he said.
"If it is dry then it is going to be really tough but if it is wet then we have a chance of scoring some good points."
There had been some doubt as to whether the session would go ahead given morning practice had to be abandoned due to fog and drizzle.
But the session got under way on schedule as the fog lifted and the rain eased and there were no delays.

Qualifying results from the Japanese Grand Prix, Saturday.
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1 min 25.368 secs
2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 1:25.438
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:25.516
4. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:25.765
5. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:26.505
6. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:26.913
7. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1:26.914
8. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:26.973
9. Robert Kubica (Poland BMW Sauber 1:27.225
10. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 1:26.033
11. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault 1:26.232
12. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Renault 1:26.247
13. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:26.253
14. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:26.948
15. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota
16. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota 1:26.728 *
17. Rubens Barichello (Brazil) Honda 1:27.323
18. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams - Toyota 1:27.454
19. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri - Honda 1:27.564
20. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker - Ferrari 1:28.628
21. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri - Honda 1:28.792
22. Sakon Yamamoto (Japan) Spyker-Ferrari 1:29.688
* Rosberg penalised 10 places for changing his engine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/7019458.stm

[cronus71]

Awesome driver this Hamilton of yours, he is what I hoped Räikkönen was

[tips]

Awesome driver this Hamilton of yours, he is what I hoped Räikkönen was

I honestly think he is going to be something very special.
He has proved himself at every level in which he has competed from Karting thru to GP2. I can't see it being long before he adds "F1 World Champion" to his list of accolades.

He appears to have it all. The bottle of Mansell and the racing brain of Shumacher / Senna. I would love it if he was to win it in his rookie year.

That said, Kimi is one hell of a driver. In the last race at Spa he owned the race from start to finish. Made for boring viewing but showed his class.

I got my alarm set for 4:30am for the Japanese GP. COME ON LEWIS.

[blaggard]

Räikkönen is a fine driver he just needs a personality graft, miserable git! we keep hearing that he is a Party animal but I wouldn't want to stand next to him, he'd drink all your booze and spoil all ypur jokes!
That said he is the man to beat for all the top drivers, he'll be his own worst enemy though.
Lewis will almost certainly be champ at some point if not this year.

[Fusen]

so who's gonna stay up to watch it live?

[tips]

so who's gonna stay up to watch it live?

Me for certain mate. I think it's gonna be a good un if it rains (which it looks like it gonna).

[-AMO-]

I'm tempted to stay up. I don't consider myself a hardcore grand prix fan, but since hamilton came on the scene its brilliant to watch. I watched the qualifying yesterday and I was blown away by hamiltons come back. A legend in the making.