The British driver Lewis Hamilton dominated the qualifying session
for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix. The 23-year-old Briton set a best time of 1
minute 20.899 seconds, 0.242 seconds ahead of Finland's Kovalainen to capture his
fourth pole position of the season and the 10th of his Formula One career.
Ferrari rivals Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were left
trailing in third and sixth positions respectively.
"It's a great day to have me and Heikki one-two - it's
about time we did that for the team," Hamilton said.
On a track in which overtaking is difficult, Hamilton is now
well placed to become the first man since Michael Schumacher in 2006 to
complete a hat-trick of Formula One victories, after winning the last two races
in Britain and Germany.
Fourth was Robert Kubica of Poland
in a BMW Sauber, with Timo Glock of Germany
in a Toyota fifth ahead of defending world
champion Raikkonen, who was 0.617 seconds behind Hamilton.
Renault's Fernando Alonso of Spain claimed seventh place
ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber of Australia with Toyota's Jarno Trulli of
Italy and Renault's Nelson Piquet Jnr completing the top 10.
BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld missed the cut after the first of
the three qualifying stints after he was blocked by traffic on his final flying
lap.
The German, lying fifth in the standings on 41 points, was
impeded by Toro Rosso driver Sebastein Bourdais to finish initially 16th.
Race commissioners later imposed a five-place grid penalty
on French driver Bourdais who will now start 19th, while Heidfeld moved up a
place to 15th.
"I am totally disappointed. On my last lap I had four
cars in the way. Most at least tried to room for me but Bourdais was completely
blocking the way," Heidfeld said.
Hamilton, who leads the drivers' championship with 58
points, will boost his chances of winning the drivers' championships if he can
claim a third successive Grand Prix victory in Sunday's race at the
4.381-kilometre Hungaroring circuit.
"There was a lot of activity here last year, all of it
unpleasant, and it's a bit different this year," said team boss Ron
Dennis. "We haven't had team orders, and we won't have them here."
First row: 1. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren-Mercedes 2. Heikki Kovalainen, Finland, McLaren-Mercedes
Second row: 3. Felipe
Massa, Brazil,
Ferrari 4. Robert Kubica, Poland, BMW Sauber
Third row: 5. Timo Glock, Germany, Toyota
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Finland, Ferrari
Fourth row 7. Fernando Alonso,
Spain, Renault
8. Mark Webber, Australia,
Red Bull
Fifth row: 9. Jarno Trulli, Italy, Toyota
10. Nelson Piquet Jnr, Brazil, Renault
Sixth row: 11. Sebastian Vettel, Germany,
Toro Rosso 12. Jenson Button,
Britain, Honda
Seventh row 13. David Coulthard, Britain, Red Bull 14. Nico Rosberg, Germany, Williams
Eighth row: 15. Nick Heidfeld,
Germany, BMW
Sauber 16. Kazuki Nakajima,
Japan, Williams
Ninth row: 17. Rubens Barrichello,
Brazil, Honda
18. Giancarlo Fisichella, Italy, Force India
10th row: 19. Sebastien
Bourdais, France,
Toro Rosso* 20. Adrian Sutil,
Germany, Force India
* Bourdais incurs five-place grid penalty for impeding
Heidfeld in qualifying
