yorkshirelad
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Britain's Lewis Hamilton set the stage for a dream victory in Sunday's British Grand Prix by taking pole position with the very last lap of qualifying.
The 22-year-old star produced a superb lap of one minute 19.997 seconds to delight the home crowd and edge out Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by 0.102secs.
Hamilton's team-mate Fernando Alonso, who was fastest in the first two parts of qualifying, is third on the grid.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa is fourth, but less than 0.3secs behind Hamilton.
The McLaren and Ferrari drivers appear closely matched and the race promises to be closely-fought and tense.
But Hamilton is in the perfect position to win his first home Grand Prix, take his third victory in four races and extend his already substantial 14-point lead in the world championship.
Hamilton was thrilled to be starting his home race from the front.
"It was an extremely tense qualifying session," he said. "Ferrari were extremely quick, and so was Fernando.
"It was all down to the final lap. I thought, coming up to the first corner, 'try to do it flat'. I didn't, but I nearly did.
"I gained a couple of tenths and I was able to maintain that through the first sector. It was very tense, but I was able to pull it together."
Hamilton was quick to pay tribute to his legion of fans and said he had got a "big buzz" and "a lot of energy" from their support.
"You definitely get a confidence boost," he said.
"Usually there are pockets, but here it's the whole grandstand. I can't believe how many people are here today and it's been fantastic."
Raikkonen, who has looked very quick throughout the weekend, said he had lost pole with a mistake at the final corner, where he ran wide and put two wheels on the grass.
"I lost all the traction, the sand was flying everywhere, it's a bit disappointing," said the Finn, who won the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours last weekend.
"But hopefully we can get a good start and it is a long race, so we'll see what we can do."
Alonso said he was confident of competing for victory after taking third on the grid.
"I am quite happy with the car," said the world champion.
"Obviously we would want to be on pole position but third is the best we could today and hopefully tomorrow it will pay off and we can overtake people in the race.
The 22-year-old star produced a superb lap of one minute 19.997 seconds to delight the home crowd and edge out Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by 0.102secs.
Hamilton's team-mate Fernando Alonso, who was fastest in the first two parts of qualifying, is third on the grid.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa is fourth, but less than 0.3secs behind Hamilton.
The McLaren and Ferrari drivers appear closely matched and the race promises to be closely-fought and tense.
But Hamilton is in the perfect position to win his first home Grand Prix, take his third victory in four races and extend his already substantial 14-point lead in the world championship.
Hamilton was thrilled to be starting his home race from the front.
"It was an extremely tense qualifying session," he said. "Ferrari were extremely quick, and so was Fernando.
"It was all down to the final lap. I thought, coming up to the first corner, 'try to do it flat'. I didn't, but I nearly did.
"I gained a couple of tenths and I was able to maintain that through the first sector. It was very tense, but I was able to pull it together."
Hamilton was quick to pay tribute to his legion of fans and said he had got a "big buzz" and "a lot of energy" from their support.
"You definitely get a confidence boost," he said.
"Usually there are pockets, but here it's the whole grandstand. I can't believe how many people are here today and it's been fantastic."
Raikkonen, who has looked very quick throughout the weekend, said he had lost pole with a mistake at the final corner, where he ran wide and put two wheels on the grass.
"I lost all the traction, the sand was flying everywhere, it's a bit disappointing," said the Finn, who won the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours last weekend.
"But hopefully we can get a good start and it is a long race, so we'll see what we can do."
Alonso said he was confident of competing for victory after taking third on the grid.
"I am quite happy with the car," said the world champion.
"Obviously we would want to be on pole position but third is the best we could today and hopefully tomorrow it will pay off and we can overtake people in the race.
