Hamilton's Pole Helps Wash Away Mclaren's Bitter Memories

The serenity surrounding the McLaren team at the Hungaroring today following fastest qualifying times for Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen was in marked contrast to the festering suspicion and barely concealed anger 12 months ago as the British team began to tear itself apart.

That was the weekend when anarchy, an alien word in McLaren's carefully constructed lexicon, took hold as Hamilton and Fernando Alonso fought among themselves and had no respect for instructions and even less for each other. When Alonso deliberately blocked Hamilton in the pit lane as a pay-back for the Englishman's failure to stick to an agreed plan, the scene was set for a stand-off that lasted from the rest of the season and contributed to McLaren's failure to win the championship.

Compare this to Hamilton and his Finnish team-mate walking arm-in-arm to the press conference today as McLaren celebrated occupancy of the entire front row for the first time since Monza in September 2007. Kovalainen's supporting role may have underlined recent improvements to the McLaren-Mercedes but such a superior performance should not detract from the influence of the drivers, particularly Hamilton, who was two-tenths of a second faster.

By adapting his driving to make the most of the small but significant changes to the McLaren's aerodynamics, Hamilton's command of the weekend so far was such that he set the fastest time on his penultimate lap, a rare occurrence in such close company. For the first time this season Hamilton, who was running last on the road, had the luxury of backing off during his final lap when news came through that the opposition could not get close to his benchmark time. It is Hamilton's fourth pole position of the season, one more than any other driver.

"It's been a pretty decent weekend," said Hamilton, displaying an equally impressive fondness for understatement. "The car has improved, even from last race [in Germany, which Hamilton won]. It's about time we had a one-two during qualifying; very satisfying."

Hamilton's sense of fulfilment was heightened by the knowledge that he could have gone even quicker thanks to locking a brake briefly on his best lap. "We were quick throughout practice," said Hamilton. "I lost a little bit of time in the middle sector of the lap. I got through Turn 4 OK but then locked the right-front going into Turn 5. I was able to save the situation and do the rest of the lap OK. So I had more to come. I don't think Felipe [Massa] believes it," grinned Hamilton as he looked across at the Ferrari driver, who had qualified third.

Massa may have believed it but did not want to admit as much on a day when Ferrari were clearly no match for McLaren. "I'm not 100 percent happy with my laps," said Massa. "There were so many cars around as we left the pits [for my final run] and I couldn't prepare my tyres properly because I like to go slightly faster on my out lap than the other drivers. So I wasn't able to do a great lap but I think we are very strong. I think we are right there – unlike in Germany – and I think we can push these guys tomorrow."

Massa will be helped by starting directly behind Hamilton on the clean side of the circuit, a possible advantage as Kovalainen deals with a surface that is notoriously dirty and slippery off the racing line. And, once ahead, Massa could take advantage of a very tight track that favours overtaking even less than usual.

"The start will be really important," agreed Kovalainen. "But this car has been feeling stronger and stronger during the last few races and we've been improving more and more. The race is going to be difficult because we expect the weather to be very hot and we're going to see a track that provides more and more grip as the race goes on. But, away from the racing line, it will become more and more dirty, so you won't be able to put a wheel off line."

Tomorrow's 70-lap encounter will be one of the most physically demanding on the calendar. The succession of tight corners gives the drivers no respite and threatens to punish tyres as track temperatures exceed 40 degrees C. Similar to the German race two weeks ago, making the softer of the two mandatory tyre compounds last the distance will be another problem for the drivers to deal with, even if safely in the lead.

"You can never feel too comfortable," said Hamilton of his domination of practice and qualifying. "But I feel we are in a safe position, having locked out the front row on a track where it's tricky to pass. There is great harmony within the team at the moment and we really deserved this."

Qualifying times (updated)

1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1 min 20.899 secs2. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1:21.1403. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:21.1914. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:21.2815. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:21.3266. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:21.5167. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:21.6988. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1:21.7329. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:21.76710. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:22.37111. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:20.14412. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:20.33213. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Renault 1:20.50214. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota15. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:21.04516. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams - Toyota 1:21.08517. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1:21.33218. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India - Ferrari 1:21.67019. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:20.96320. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Ferrari 1:22.113