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MELBOURNE: Britain’s Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren claimed pole
position for Sunday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix,
cashing in on mechanical problems with Ferrari’s world champion
Kimi Raikkonen in final qualifying on Saturday.
Hamilton, runner-up to Raikkonen by one point in
last year’s championship, claimed his seventh career pole and will
start from the inside of the grid in the Australian GP.
Poland’s Robert Kubica, in a BMW Sauber,
estimated he lost two or three-tenths of a second in veering off in
his final flying lap to just miss out on the taking pole off
Hamilton.
Hamilton’s teammate Heikki Kovalainen was
third in qualifying in a great start to the new season for McLaren.
But it was a disaster for Ferrari with
Raikkonen’s car dramatically slowing towards the end of the first
stage of qualifying and coming to rest at the top of the pit
straight.
Raikkonen’s car needed to be pushed to the
team garage by his mechanics and he was not allowed to continue in
qualifying to improve on his 16th place, conceding a massive first
race advantage to his championship rival Hamilton.
Hamilton said his start in the race will be
important and he plans to take advantage of his inside slot to keep
out of trouble negotiating the tight hairpin right-hander out of the
straight.
“We’ll see a wider range of starts being
used tomorrow and I’m happy to be inside for once and will look to
use my opportunity,” Hamilton said.
It was an encouraging qualifying session for
Kubica, who continued BMW-Sauber’s impressive lead-in to the first
race with German teammate Nick Heidfeld fifth fastest and starting
off the third row.
While it was all gloom for Raikkonen,
Renault’s dual world champion Fernando Alonso was another to
suffer and he missed the cut-off for the third and final session of
qualifying.
Alonso, who returned to Renault after an unhappy
season at McLaren, finished 12th, while his Brazilian teammate
Nelson Piquet Jr. was 21st.
-- AFP
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