Qualification – An essential pole for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton increased his chances of becoming the 2008 champion by securing pole position in the Chinese Grand Prix, two places ahead of his title rival Felipe Massa.

Kimi Räikkönen will join Hamilton on the front row as the third title contender, Robert Kubica, experienced his worst qualifying session of the season, finishing 12th.

The McLaren driver had a disappointing first lap in Q3 as he was only 5th after a mistake in the second sector. But the comeback was all the more impressive. He beat Räikkönen in a masterful way by 0.342 seconds.

Massa was ahead of Hamilton after the first fast lap of the third part of qualifying but didn’t improve his time enough. The Brazilian will start the race from third place, being half a second behind the McLaren driver.

Fernando Alonso is in fourth position for Renault. He is ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in a disappointing fifth place with the second MP4/23. The Finnish driver was in provisional pole at the beginning of Q3 but did not significantly improve on his second run.

Mark Webber’s Red Bull is in sixth place but will lose this position due to a motor change, which will allow Nick Heidfeld to be on the third row for BMW.

The two Toro Rossos are, once again, in the top 10. Respectively 8th and 10th in Q3, Sebastian Vettel is 1.2 seconds behind his teammate Sébastien Bourdais. Jarno Trulli’s Toyota is in 9th position.

Kubica had been unlucky with his car during Friday’s practice, but things seemed more promising when he took third place this morning during free practice 3. The qualifying session was synonymous with a fiasco as he is only 12th but will benefit from Webber’s penalty to advance one position. The Pole has been eliminated in Q2 twice during his Formula 1 career.

The drivers Nelson Piquet and Timo Glock did not follow their respective teammates by stopping in Q2. They secured the 11th and 13th fastest times but will also benefit from the penalty imposed on Webber to gain a place on the starting grid.

For the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello experiences the sensations of Q2 and takes 14th place ahead of Nico Rosberg (Williams). The Brazilian’s teammate at Honda, Jenson Button, had less luck. The Briton is 18th behind Kazuki Nakajima in his FW30. The two Force India cars are on the last row with Sutil ahead of Fisichella.

Red Bull Racing experienced a frustrating afternoon with Webber’s engine change penalizing him 10 places on the starting grid. The Australian will therefore be in 16th position for the start of the race tomorrow, while his teammate, David Coulthard, will be 15th.

Result Qualification – Chinese GP – Saturday, October 18