Hamilton takes pole

By Gordon Howard

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

Sept. 6: World championship leader Lewis Hamilton oozed confidence after he secured pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix with a dazzling lap in Saturday’s qualifying session.

The 23-year-old Briton, in a McLaren, claimed his fifth pole of this season and the 11th of his career with a perfectly-timed lap to outpace title rival the Ferrari of Brazilian Felipe Massa

Hamilton’s supreme lap lifted him clear of Massa by three-tenths of a second and proved he is fully recovered from his sore neck suffered in Spain two weeks ago.

Finland’s Heikki Kovlainen in the second McLaren was third fastest and starts ahead of defending champion and compatriot Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari on row two.

German Nick Heidfeld was fifth for BMW Sauber ahead of two times champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso in a Renault.

Australian Mark Webber was seventh for Red Bull ahead of Poland’s Robert Kubica in the second BMW, Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais in a Toro Rosso and Sebastian Vettel of Germany in the second Toro Rosso.

Hamilton leads Massa by six points going into the penultimate European race of the year and oozed confidence. "It was a perfect lap, one of my four perfect laps so I was very happy," he said.

"I made no mistakes and the team made no mistakes so we are looking good," said Hamilton.

Massa said he also did a perfect lap. "It was as good as I could have done," he said. "Sometimes you do your best, do a perfect lap and then you find it is not enough, and that is what happened today." — AFP