Hamilton takes pole for Japanese Grand Prix

Sep 29, 2007, 6:59 GMT

Fuji, Japan - Championship leader Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix from pole after posting the fastest time in Saturday's qualifying session, beating his teammate Fernando Alonso into second place.

The Ferrari's of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa will start from the second row on the grid after posting the third and fourth fastest time.

Nick Heidfeld in a BMW-Sauber was fifth-fastest, while Nico Rosberg, who had the sixth fastest time, will have to start from 16th on the grid after being put back ten places following an engine change.

Hamilton, who was lying third on his final lap, managed to better Alonso's time by just seven hundredth of a second. The Briton had a time of one minute 25.358 seconds for the 4.563 kilometre-long lap of the Fuji Speedway.

The free practise session earlier Saturday had to be abandoned after organizers ruled that foggy conditions made the landing of a helicopter, which would be needed in case of an emergency, impossible.

By afternoon the fog had lifted enough to allow the qualifying to take place although conditions remained wet and difficult.

Toyota's Ralf Schumacher, who had the time to advance to the second round of the qualifying, crashed into the Spyker of Sakon Yamamoto on the last lap of the first qualifying session and could not participate in the next round. As a result he will start from 15th position on the grid in Sunday's Grand Prix.

Hamilton leads the standings on 97 points, two ahead of Alonso. Raikkonen has 84, while his teammate Massa is on 77.

Ferrari can no longer be caught in the constructors' standings, moving to 161 points, with BMW-Sauber (90) assured of second spot. McLaren, who had a convincing lead, where docked all their points for the season after being found guilty of having classified Ferrari documents in their possession.