Hamilton eyeing McLaren 1-2 after pole

The Briton left it until the final seconds of qualifying to knock Felipe Massa off the top spot, and sees no reason why he and teammate Heikki Kovalainen cannot dominate proceedings tomorrow.

"It has been a good day," said Hamilton after the session. "I feel pretty chilled and happy with what we've done, but today is not where you win points, tomorrow is. And Heikki and I will do everything we can to get a 1-2."

Hamilton said his first run in Q3 had been below par because he lifted off coming into the stadium for yellow flags that were brought out when Heikki Kovalainen ran off the track.

And even with a two-tenth advantage over Massa on his final run, he felt he could have gone ever quicker.

"My final lap I was quite happy with to be honest," he explained. "It went very smoothly. The first Q3 lap I had was looking to be a good lap but they put the flags out at Turn 12. I think Heikki ran a bit wide. I had to be careful not to get a penalty, so I gave a big lift.

"I know I had it in me and knew we had the pace. I could have gone a bit quicker if we needed to, so it was pretty cool."

Although developments to the McLaren MP4-23 appear to have lifted the team ahead of Ferrari, Hamilton still thinks there is little to choose between the two main championship rivals.

"It is very close. I am surprised to see how close it is between all the teams...it is a tenth here and there. I feel we have the pace, so we will keep pushing and keep moving forward."