Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton of Britain took the 14th pole position of his career on Saturday as McLaren locked out the front row of the grid for the European Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old Englishman dominated a tense and intriguing qualifying session run on the dusty streets around Valencia’s Mediterranean port to outpace his Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. The Press Association
Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello will start third ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and overall leader Jenson Button.
Luca Badoer, who is replacing the injured Felipe Massa for Ferrari, qualified last on the 20-car grid on his return to F1 after a 10-year absence.
Kovalainen was poised to give Hamilton a run for pole but slid out as he came out of the penultimate turn to give Hamilton his 14th career pole and McLaren’s first 1-2 start since last year’s Hungarian GP.
“I took it to the limit. You can always argue it could have been better, but in qualify it can go either way. I didn’t lose more than one place so it’s fine,” said Kovalainen, who has had to endure constant speculation over his future with the British team. USA Today
POS DRIVER ENTRANT 1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 2 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 3 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 5 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 7 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 8 Fernando Alonso Renault 9 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 10 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 11 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 12 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 13 Timo Glock Toyota 14 Romain Grosjean Renault 15 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 16 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 17 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 18 Jarno Trulli Toyota 19 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 20 Luca Badoer Ferrari
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