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Hamilton takes pole in Hungary

Lewis Hamilton will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole, having qualified ahead of Romain Grosjean and Sebastian Vettel

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton has secured pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, after a dominant performance in qualifying.

The McLaren driver went into the session as the firm favourite, having been fastest in Friday practice, and his final lap of Q3 was more than four-tenths of a second faster than Romain Grosjean in the Lotus. This is the 2008 champion's third pole position at this track.

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Reigning-world champion Sebastian Vettel will start from third, alongside Jenson Button in the second McLaren. Kimi Raikkonen will start fifth.

Fernando Alonso's one and only lap of Q3 was good enough for sixth, while his teammate Felipe Massa will start seventh alongside Pastor Maldonado.

Bruno Senna made it into the final qualifying session for the first time this season. He will start the race from ninth, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.

The biggest shock of the day was Mark Webber. Despite being second in the championship and fastest in the morning's final practice session, he narrowly missed out on a place in the top 10. That said, starting 11th does mean that he will be allowed to choose which tyres he starts the race on, which will give him an advantage.

Paul di Resta will start 12th, ahead of Nico Rosberg and the Saubers, while Michael Schumacher will start all the way down in 17th.

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The Toro Rossos have also struggled so far this weekend. Jean-Eric Vergne is in 16th, but Daniel Ricciardo failed even to make it out of Q1, despite using up a set of soft tyres.

Lotus' Vitaly Petrov was again out-qualified by teammate Heikki Kovalainen, while rookie Charles Pic beat Timo Glock. HRT drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan will share the back row of the grid.

All drivers qualified within the 107 per cent requirement, which means 24 cars will start tomorrow's race.

2012 Hungarian Grand Prix grid

PositionDriverTeamTime
1Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1'20.953
2Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1'21.366
3Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1'21.416
4Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1'21.583
5Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1'21.730
6Fernando AlonsoFerrari1'21.844
7Felipe MassaFerrari1'21.900
8Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1'21.939
9Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault1'22.343
10Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1'22.847
11Mark WebberRed Bull Racing-Renault1'21.715
12Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1'21.813
13Nico RosbergMercedes1'21.895
14Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1'21.895
15Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1'22.300
16Jean-Eric VergneSTR-Ferrari1'22.380
17Michael SchumacherMercedes1'22.723
18Daniel RicciardoSTR-Ferrari1'23.250
19Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1'23.576
20Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault1'24.167
21Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth1'25.244
22Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth1'25.476
23Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth1'25.916
24Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1'26.178

107 per cent time: 1'27.519

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