Hamilton secures pole

8:48pm Saturday 6th September 2008

Lewis Hamilton cruised to the 11th pole position of his 30-race Formula One career ahead of Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

The world championship leader produced a stunning display around the Spa circuit to leave title rivals Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen in his wake.

Hamilton clinched top spot on the grid with a lap of one minute 47.338 seconds for his fifth pole of the year, with Massa on the front row, but over 0.3secs down.

On a dry circuit it was all too easy for McLaren star Hamilton, who holds a six-point cushion in the drivers' standings over Massa in his Ferrari.

Heikki Kovalainen will start third for McLaren, with Raikkonen fourth, the Finn out-qualified for the ninth time in 13 races by Ferrari team-mate Massa this season.

Behind the leading quartet comes Nick Heidfeld in his BMW Sauber, beating team-mate Robert Kubica for only the second time this year as the Pole will start eighth.

Fernando Alonso joins Heidfeld on the third row of the grid in sixth in his Renault, with Mark Webber seventh for Red Bull.

Sebastien Bourdais, the four-times ChampCar champion in danger of losing his race seat at Toro Rosso for next season, will start a F1 career-high of ninth, with team-mate Sebastian Vettel 10th.

For only the third time this year, neither Toyota made it into the top 10, with Jarno Trulli 11th on the grid and team-mate Timo Glock 13th.

Renault's Nelson Piquet, who has been out-qualified by Alonso at every race this year, is 12th, with David Coulthard 14th for Red Bull and Nico Rosberg 15th in his Williams.

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