Hamilton cruises to pole position while Vettel trails in sixth place

Melbourne: Dazzling Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position for the Australian Grand Prix yesterday ahead of his McLaren teammate Jenson Button, with defending world champion Sebastian Vettel back in sixth.

Britain's Hamilton, 27, the 2008 drivers' king, clocked a fastest time of one minute and 24.922 seconds around Melbourne's Albert Park track, beating Button by just one-tenth of a second.

In a thrilling finish to qualifying, Frenchman Romain Grosjean took third place for Lotus on his first appearance in Melbourne, pushing seven-time champion Michael Schumacher of Mercedes down to fourth.

That meant the Red Bull pairing of home hero Mark Webber and Germany's Vettel qualified fifth and sixth for the 58-lap race. But while Red Bull were disappointed, it was a near-disastrous day for Ferrari who failed to place a driver in the top 10 starting positions.

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso spun out at turn one in the second session and left his car beached in the gravel trap, while his team-mate Felipe Massa could not improve on 16th place.

It was also a bad session for returning 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen, who failed to progress from the first part of qualifying in his Lotus and will start from 18th.

Schumacher's Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg was seventh ahead of Pastor Maldonado of Williams, Nico Hulkenberg of Force India and Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who marked his Melbourne debut by placing 10th for Toro Rosso.

For Hamilton, his speed brought the 20th pole of his career on a day when he was supported by his close friend and former fiancee Nicole Scherzinger.

Hamilton said: "It's a great start to the season for me and the team, but we know that it is only Saturday and tomorrow is the day that counts.

‘Great effort'

"I must say the team has done a great job. It has been a great effort by the team after a couple of tough years.

"It was a great lap for me and I tried to improve it by braking later at turn one the next time, but unfortunately it didn't work and luckily for me my first lap was good enough."

Button also paid warm tribute to the McLaren team. "They have done a fantastic job over the winter and this is the proof of that," he said. "We have done a good job to get the best out of ourselves this weekend."

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