Lewis Hamilton earned the pole position at Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix after recording the fastest time in Saturday's qualifying session. He will be flanked in the first starting row by his McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso.

The Englishman was better than Alonso by just seven hundredth of a second. He finished the 4.563 kilometer-long lap of the Fuji Speedway in one minute 25.358 seconds. The Briton was pleased with the feat.

"I did not know the track in wet conditions, so I am very satisfied. It was a very good session. They (Hamilton’s team) timed it to perfection and this helped me get to pole," Hamilton said.

Anyway, the race is on. It doesn’t really matter who starts from the pole position and who a few meters is behind. At this level of proficiency the pole position is just a matter of pride and statistics. And Spanish driver Alonso said he was also satisfied with the second place on the starting grid, but surely he would have loved not to lose the pole to his teammate and bitter rival.  

"The qualifying was ok. I normally like driving in wet conditions and everything was going well. And although in the end I lost pole, I am satisfied starting from the first row," the Spaniard said.

The second starting row is completed by the Ferrari's of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa after they posted the third and fourth time.

Due to a thick fog, the early Saturday free practice session was abandoned as the landing of a helicopter in case of emergency would have been impossible, organizers said.   

Although the meteorological conditions left the track wet, which makes it a bit difficult for the drivers, at least the fog was out of the frame by afternoon, thus allowing the qualifying to take place.

Nick Heidfeld will start from the fifth position in his BMW-Sauber, while Honda's Jenson Button will complete the third starting row although he recorded the seventh-fastest time. Button took Nico Roseberg’s place in the starting grid, who was the sixth-fastest but was demoted ten places following an engine change. He will start from the 16th position.

The fourth row was completed by Mark Webber in a Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel, who managed to finish into the top ten for the first time this season. And the fifth row will host the BMW of Robert Kubica and Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault.

Although he had a time that would have permitted him to make it to the second round of the qualifying, Germany’s Ralph Schumacher crashed into the Spyker of Sakon Yamamoto on the last lap of the first qualifying session. As a consequence, he could not participate in the next round and he will start 15th.

Hamilton is still No.1 in the drivers’ rankings with 97 points. Alonso is second with 95, followed by Kimi Raikkonen, who amounted 84 points so far, while his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa is fourth with 77.

In the constructors’ standings, Ferrari are already champions as their 161 points can no longer be surpassed by second-place BMW-Sauber with 90 points. Former leader McLaren were stripped of all their points for the season after they were found guilty of  having classified Ferrari documents in their possession.

Starting grid for Japanese Grand Prix (over 67 laps of 4.563 kilometers; race distance of 305.721 kilometres):

First row: 1. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren-Mercedes 2. Fernando Alonso, Spain, McLaren-Mercedes

Second row: 3. Kimi Raikkonen, Finland, Ferrari 4. Felipe Massa, Brazil, Ferrari

Third row: 5. Nick Heidfeld, Germany, BMW 6. Jenson Button, Britain, Honda

Fourth row: 7. Mark Webber, Australia, Red Bull 8. Sebastian Vettel, Germany, STR-Ferrari

Fifth row: 9. Robert Kubica, Poland, BMW 10. Giancarlo Fisichella, Italy, Renault

Sixth row: 11. Heikki Kovalainen, Finland, Renault 12. David Coulthard, Britain, Red Bull

Seventh row: 13. Jarno Trulli, Italy, Toyota 14. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Italy, Toro Rosso

Eighth row: 15. Ralf Schumacher, Germany, Toyota 16. Nico Rosberg, Germany, Williams * placed ten places back after engine change

Ninth row: 17. Rubens Barrichello, Brazil, Honda 18. Alexander Wurz, Austria, Williams

10th row: 19. Anthony Davidson, Britain, Super Aguri 20. Adrian Sutil, Germany, Spyker

11th row 21. Takuma Sato, Japan, Super Aguri 22. Sakon Yamamoto, Japan, Spyker.