Formula One news

Hamilton steals last gasp pole

Lewis Hamilton snatched pole from Robert Kubica and McLaren team mate Heikki Kovalainen in the final seconds of a dramatic opening qualifying session this season in Albert Park.

There were some changes for the first qualifying session of the new season, Q1 extended by five minutes to 20 minutes while Q3 is reduced to just 10 minutes with no fuel burn phase. Cars that make it into Q3 must start the race with the same fuel they were carrying at the end of qualifying.

The first part of qualifying threw up a surprise as reigning champion Kimi Raikkonen got knocked out - his Ferrari suffering a problem after his first flying lap. The Finn was relegated after just three laps on track and will start 16th ahead of Fisichella, Bourdais, Sutil, Sato, Piquet and Davidson.

The second part of qualifying started slowly and then got stopped after Mark Webber lost control of his Red Bull at home and ended up in the gravel. The second session eliminated Webber, Nakajima, Alonso and Barrichello. 

The pole shoot-out threw up a surprise as Hamilton set the pace for much of the session, only to be nudged out in the final moments by BMW's Robert Kubica, hanging his car out and almost going off track. Hamilton, however was still on track and with his final lap, snatched back pole by 0.1s. Heikki Kovalainen was third on his McLaren debut ahead of Massa, Heidfeld, Trulli, Rosberg, Coulthard, Glock and Vettel.

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