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McLaren on pole for Singapore

Singapore - McLaren's Lewis Hamilton continued his surge in the second half of the season by nailing down pole position for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix with a stirring drive around the Marina Bay street circuit on Saturday.

The Briton has won two of the last three races to close within 37 points of championship leader Fernando Alonso with seven rounds remaining, and will be confident of converting McLaren's fourth consecutive pole into a fourth successive team victory.

FORMER WINNER AT SAN MARINA


Hamilton won this race in 2009 and became the first man to secure pole here twice with a lap of 1 minute 46.362seconds, almost half a second ahead of Williams' Pastor Maldonado, who drove brilliantly to claim a front row spot.

World champion Sebastian Vettel had dominated the three practice sessions prior to qualifying but his Red Bull could only finish third in 1:46.905, narrowly ahead of Hamilton's McLaren team mate Jenson Button.

Alonso clocked the fifth fastest time but the Spaniard has made a habit of picking up big points in his Ferrari despite qualifying down the grid and will be looking for a similar performance on Sunday at a circuit where he has won twice.

The top 10 was rounded out by Force India's Paul di Resta, Red Bull's Mark Webber, Romain Grosjean in a Lotus, and the Mercedes duo of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, who both opted against setting timed laps in the final qualifying run.

Qualifying times for the Singapore F1 Grand Prix at the San Marina street circuit:
1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1minute46.362seconds
2 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1min46.804
3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1min46.905
4 Jenson Button McLaren 1min46.939
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1min47.216
6 Paul di Resta Force India 1min47.241
7 Mark Webber Red Bull 1min47.475
8 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1min47.788
9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1min47.823
10 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1min47.943
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11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1min47.975
12 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1min48.261
13 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1min48.344
14 Sergio Perez Sauber 1min48.505
15 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1min48.774
16 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1min48.849
17 Bruno Senna Williams
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18 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1min49.933
19 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 1min50.846
20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1min51.137
21 Timo Glock Marussia 1min51.370
22 Charles Pic Marussia 1min51.762
23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1min52.372
24 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 1min53.355

Third practice session
Second practice session
First practice session

Stay with Wheels24 for the Singapore F1 GP
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