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Dominant Hamilton takes Hungary pole for resurgent McLaren

updated 2:27 PM EDT, Sat July 28, 2012
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton celebrates his pole position for tomorrow's Hungarian grand prix
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton celebrates his pole position for tomorrow's Hungarian grand prix
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Lewis Hamilton takes pole as his McLaren dominates qualifying
  • Louts driver Romain Grosjean grabs second in the final moments
  • World Champion Sebastien Vettel takes third, team mate Webber only manages 11th
  • Mercedes pair Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg struggle for pace

(CNN) -- McLaren's Lewis Hamilton secured pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix with a dominant display in Saturday's qualifying session.

The British driver, who has now qualified on pole 22 times, had been consistently fastest in practice at the Hungaroring, near Budapest, and will be hoping to make the most of some disappointing qualifying performances from his rivals, with championship leader Fernando Alonso lagging in sixth..

"That was a really good session and I would have been disappointed not to have taken pole," said Hamilton, "But we will have a lot to do before we have done the job."

Sebastian Vettel will start third on the grid after young Lotus driver Romain Grosjean, 26, snatched second place from the reigning world champion in the final seconds of the day's racing.

"It was a difficult session for us," Vettel explained to the Formula 1 website.

"We didn't get into qualifying how we would like and the rhythm wasn't there straight away."

Hamilton's teammate Jenson Button will start from fourth after he enjoyed a much improved qualifying performance, having struggled for much of the season after winning the opening race of the season.

"I was much happier with the car in qualifying today than I'd been in free practice.

"I wasn't quite as happy as Lewis obviously - he did a great job today so well done to him for that - but I feel pretty good, all in all," Button told the official website.

Grosjean's teammate Kimi Raikkonen took fifth, ahead of the two Ferrari drivers Alonso and Felipe Massa.

Australian Mark Webber, who currently sits second in the championship after wins at Monaco and Silverstone, had a miserable day amd will start eleventh on the grid.

The Red Bull driver described the session as "disappointing" but was confident that the team's "pace should be okay" on Sunday.

Mercedes drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg also endured a less than satisfactory qualifying session, with Rosberg qualifying in 13th and Schumacher, a seven-time world champion, only managing 17th.

"It was quite a tough and difficult day for us," said Schumacher. "We have to clearly see that we did not have the pace to be in the front."

"You have to accept the gap is quite big. We know the combination of track layout and temperature does not suit us too much, and we will try to make the best out of it tomorrow."

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