Hamilton secures Japanese GP pole

In dry and sunny conditions very different to last year's qualifying downpour, Hamilton dug deep to beat a resurgent Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) to pole position, with Heikki Kovalainen and Fernando Alonso filling row two ahead of Massa.

Raikkonen had been fastest after the first Q3 runs, with Massa provisionally completing an all-Ferrari front row and Hamilton only third at that stage.

The reigning world champion then improved further on his flying lap, raising the benchmark to a 1:18.644.

But Hamilton responded in style and beat Raikkonen to pole by 0.2 seconds.

With the points leader's McLaren teammate Kovalainen and Singapore winner Alonso (Renault) leaping to the second row on their own last laps, Massa was pushed back to fifth place - potentially disastrous for his title aspirations.

Robert Kubica took sixth on the grid, but the Pole's teammate Nick Heidfeld had another extremely disappointing qualifying session, and will start from 16th - his worst grid position of the season. Neither BMW was especially competitive in Q1, with Kubica only 14th, but Heidfeld was a crucial 0.151 seconds slower and was eliminated.

Toyota filled row four at their home circuit, with Timo Glock only eighth behind his teammate Jarno Trulli despite going fastest of all in Q1.

The Toro Rossos completed the top ten, Sebastian Vettel beating teammate Sebastien Bourdais to ninth by half a second.

David Coulthard out-qualified his Red Bull Racing teammate Mark Webber for only the second time this season as they took 11th and 13th, 0.167 seconds apart and split by Nelson Piquet's Renault.

Sole home driver Kazuki Nakajima couldn't better 14th place in qualifying, but did have the consolation of out-pacing his Williams teammate Nico Rosberg, who was 0.078 seconds slower and one place behind.

The two Hondas and the two Force Indias fill the final two rows. Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button both looked like they had a chance to make the Q2 cut before others improved and pushed them down the order, and they then failed to improve on their last Q1 laps.

Adrian Sutil was unable to build on his strong practice form and was only 19th, but did out-qualify his Force India teammate Giancarlo Fisichella by a comfortable 0.8 seconds.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Q1        Q2        Q3     
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:18.071  1:17.462  1:18.404
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:18.160  1:17.733  1:18.644
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:18.220  1:17.360  1:18.821
 4.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:18.290  1:17.871  1:18.852
 5.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:18.110  1:17.287  1:18.874
 6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:18.684  1:17.931  1:18.979
 7.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:18.501  1:17.541  1:19.026
 8.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:17.945  1:17.670  1:19.118
 9.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:18.559  1:17.714  1:19.638
10.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:18.593  1:18.102  1:20.167
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:18.303  1:18.187
12.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:18.300  1:18.274
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:18.372  1:18.354
14.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:18.640  1:18.594
15.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:18.740  1:18.672
16.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:18.835
17.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:18.882
18.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:19.100
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:19.163
20.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:19.910