Hamilton on pole in McLaren front row

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

Lewis Hamilton has again showed who is going the man to beat tomorrow, while Heikki Kovalainen has confirmed the pace of their McLaren by securing a McLaren front row. Felipe Massa is the first Ferrari in third place, ahead of Robert Kubica.

Three of the Red Bull owned cars are the first on the circuit, with Vettel proving faster than Coulthard and Bourdais. Several other drivers followed and by halfway, Hamilton had set the fastest time, ahead of Massa and Trulli.

In the closing stages, Button just pips Heidfeld and gets 15th place, effectively knocking out Heidfeld. The German was slightly hindered in the final corner of the circuit in his fastest lap and could well raise a complaint with the officers. Together with Heidfeld, Barrichello, Sutil, Fisichella and Nakajima were unable to qualify for Q2.

Q2 starts with several drivers putting on the harder tyre. Glock is consequently fastest as he is running on the softer Bridgestone compound. Massa, also on the harder tyre is the first to improve 6 minutes from the end.

5 minutes later, Massa is still on top, ahead of Glock, Hamilton, Kovalainen and Räikkönen. The gaps at the back are however very small and even Trulli who is currently 6th might get popped out of he can't improve.

Jarno did improve and jumped Raikkonen, ahead of Kubica, Alonso and Webber. Piquet also managed to get into Q3 with a solid lap in the closing stages of the session. As a result, Vettel, Button, Coulthard, Bourdais and Rosberg will not be allowed to participate in Q3.

The first laps in Q3 confirm Glocks good form but also hint at a lower fuel load. At their first attempts, Glock is just over 6 tenths faster than his teammate Trulli. Halfway through the session, everybody is out on track.

A minute later, Hamilton has taken the lead on the harder compound, ahead of a further improved time of Glock. Massa is third, Raikkonen fourth. Webber, Trulli, Kubica, Alonso and Kovalainen are slower while Nelson Piquet can only improve as he is 10th after the first series of flying laps.

Kubica is the first to complete his final attempt and puts his BMW just behind Hamilton. Kovalainen does a similar trick while Hamilton improves even further to confirm his dominance in this qualifying.