Hamilton leads all-McLaren front row

The Briton, who took the pole with his first attempt in Q3, was only ever threatened by his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, who could have taken a second career pole for himself but for a mistake in the final sector of his best lap.

Then again, Hamilton's final attempt wasn't bad either, but once he knew Kovalainen had failed to beat his time, the world champion aborted his lap, pitted, and began celebrating.

Hamilton had already set an extraordinary mark of 1m39.498s on his first attempt, and the strength of that lap was emphasised when Jenson Button crossed the line 30 seconds later to take second place, although the Briton would later drop down the order.

Rubens Barrichello - having set the fastest lap of all in Q2 with a 1m38.076s - will start third on the grid in the best of the Brawns, having used just one set of tyres in Q3.

Sebastian Vettel took a surprising fourth, having not looked likely to do so for much of the weekend. The German, who suffered a major engine failure in the morning practice session, outpaced his title rival Button.

The world championship leader will start fifth, having struggled for balance through Q1 and Q2. He went wide at a corner on his best lap, and otherwise expected to be fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen took sixth for Ferrari ahead of Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso.

Mark Webber looked uncomfortable with the balance of his Red Bull in ninth while Robert Kubica broke into the top ten for BMW.

Adrian Sutil recorded another strong qualifying performance with 12th, but he will have been disappointed not to have put the Force India into Q3. The German's 1m38.846s lap was his fastest of the weekend, however.

He will start behind Nick Heidfeld, who was bumped from Q3 by a late lap by Alonso to start 11th.

Timo Glock was an uninspiring 13th for Toyota, while Romain Grosjean recorded the best rookie performance in 14th for Renault, but less than 0.4s behind Alonso on his debut which compares well with his predecessor.

The hot-footed Sebastian Buemi was 15th.

Giancarlo Fisichella delivered an early disappointment for Force India, having showed promise throughout practice, by being bumped to 16th in the last 20 seconds of Q1.

Behind him were Kazuki Nakajima, whose car failed on him in the first sector of the lap having also looked strong, a mystifyingly slow Jarno Trulli, Jaime Alguersuari and the hapless Luca Badoer.

The Italian, who never came to grips with the Ferrari, ended up nearly three seconds slower than Button's fastest time, and more than two behind team-mate Raikkonen.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3     
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:38.649  1:38.182  1:39.498
 2.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:38.816  1:38.230  1:39.532
 3.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:39.019  1:38.076  1:39.563
 4.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:39.295  1:38.273  1:39.789
 5.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:38.531  1:38.601  1:39.821
 6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:38.843  1:38.782  1:40.144
 7.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:39.039  1:38.346  1:40.185
 8.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:39.155  1:38.717  1:40.236
 9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:38.983  1:38.625  1:40.239
10.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:38.806  1:38.747  1:40.512
11.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:39.032  1:38.826
12.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:39.145  1:38.846
13.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:39.459  1:38.991
14.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:39.322  1:39.040
15.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:38.912  1:39.514
16.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:39.531
17.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:39.795
18.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:39.807
19.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:39.925
20.  Badoer       Ferrari               (B)  1:41.413

All Timing Unofficial