Belgian F1 2008 - Qualifying : Hamilton on pole in Spa

World championship leader Lewis Hamilton oozed confidence after he secured pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix with a dazzling lap in Saturday’s qualifying session.

The 23-year-old Briton, in a McLaren, claimed his fifth pole of this season and the 11th of his career with a perfectlytimed lap to outpace Ferrari’s Felipe Massa

Hamilton’s supreme lap lifted him clear of Massa by three-tenths of a second and proved he is fully recovered from his sore neck suffered in Spain two weeks ago.

Finland’s Heikki Kovlainen in the second McLaren was third fastest and starts ahead of defending champion and compatriot Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari on row two. German Nick Heidfeld was fifth for BMW Sauber ahead of Spaniard Fernando Alonso in a Renault.

Australian Mark Webber was seventh for Red Bull ahead of Poland's Robert Kubica in the second BMW, Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais in a Toro Rosso and Sebastian Vettel of Germany in the second Toro Rosso. Hamilton leads Massa by six points going into the penultimate European race of the year and oozed confidence.

After a morning of heavy rain, the afternoon session was run in dry, if cloudy conditions and Hamilton was swiftly out to top the times after Massa and then Raikkonen had laid down good marker laps.

In the final minute, and as the flag fell, both Massa and Hamilton were pushing as hard as possible and the Brazilian went top briefly before the leader took over again to get the prime grid position.

German Adrian Sutil and his Force India team-mate, Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella, were also removed along with the Japanese Kazuki Nakajima in a Williams.