The Hindu : Sport : Lewis Hamilton clinches pole

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Lewis Hamilton clinches pole

Massa takes second position

— PHOTO: AFP

IN THE VAN: McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took his fifth pole of the season on Saturday.

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS (Belgium): McLaren’s championship leader Lewis Hamilton clinched pole position for Sunday’s Belgian Formula One Grand Prix ahead of his main challenger Felipe Massa, on a track which was supposed to favour the Ferrari car.

Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen took third place on the grid, with the second Ferrari driver, World champion Kimi Raikkonen, completing the top four.

“The team made no mistakes and I made no mistakes,” said Hamilton after taking his fifth pole of the season. “I’m more and more comfortable in the car.”

BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was fifth, edging former World champion Fernando Alonso of Renault.

Hamilton set a time of 1 minute, 47.338 seconds on Saturday in the decisive qualifying session at the 7.004 kilometre (4.352-mile) Spa-Francorchamps circuit, beating Massa by 0.340 seconds.

Sizable margin

It was a sizable margin on a circuit where the Ferrari car has traditionally done well. Massa, who is trying to close the 70-64 gap with Hamilton in the world standing could not figure what went wrong.

Raikkonen, trailing Hamilton by 13 points, continued to disappoint on a circuit he safely can call his own since he won the last three races here. He spun off in practice on Friday, and has been chasing his teammate Massa all weekend.

Fisichella eliminated

German Adrian Sutil and his Force India teammate, Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella, were also removed along with the Japanese Kazuki Nakajima in a Williams.

Top 10: 1. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) 1 min 47.338s; 2. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:47.678; 3. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) 1:47.815; 4. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:47.992; 5. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) 1:48.315; 6. Fernando Alonso (Renault) 1:48.504; 7. Mark Webber (RedBull-Renault) 1:48.736; 8. Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) 1:48.763; 9. Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:48.951; 10. Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:50.319. — Agencies

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