SHANGHAI, Oct 18: McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton gave his Formula One title hopes a huge boost when he took pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday with his main rival Felipe Massa of Ferrari qualifying third.

The 23-year-old Briton, who could become Formula One’s youngest world champion if he wins Sunday’s penultimate race of the season and Massa finishes fifth or worse, will line up alongside world champion Kimi Raikkonen on the front row.

Brazilian Massa said he had struggled to put everything together for the final qualifying session but remained upbeat about keeping the championship open until the final race at his home Interlagos circuit.

“I would like to be at the front, I’ll try and make a good start, that’s it,” said the 27-year-old. “We have a long night to think about tomorrow. I’m confident, you never know what will happen in the race.”

BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica, the third driver still in title contention albeit 12 points behind Hamilton, scraped into the second qualifying session but failed to reach the final shootout and will start 11th on the grid. Raikkonen also struggled with the set-up of his Ferrari but thought it might be better on Sunday.

“McLaren has been very fast but we’ll see tomorrow how everything is in race conditions,” he said. “I will definitely try and win the race.”

The first two rows of the grid will be exactly the same as last season in Shanghai with Renault’s Fernando Alonso, who has won the last two races, qualifying fourth.

Last year, Hamilton needed only to beat his championship rivals to win the title but failed to finish the race after skidding off at the pitlane entry. The front row in Shanghai will also be a repeat of last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji, where Hamilton failed to score any points after a wild start that earned him a drive-through penalty.

Hamilton’s driving has come under fire from his rivals over the last couple of weeks but it has not seemed to distract him this weekend and he has set the pace in most of the sessions.

Saturday’s pole position was Hamilton’s seventh of the season and 13th in 34 races.

His McLaren team mate Heikki Kovalainen will lead off the third row from fifth place alongside BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld with Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel continuing his impressive form by claiming seventh place on the grid.

Qualifying times:

1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:36.303; 2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:36.645; 3. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:36.889; 4. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:36.927; 5. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1:36.930; 6. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 1:37.083; 7. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:37.201; 8. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso 1:37.685; 9. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:37.934; 10. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso 1:38.885; 11. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:35.722; 12. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:35.814; 13. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:35.937; 14. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1:36.079; 15. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams 1:36.210; 16. David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull 1:36.731; 17. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams 1:36.863; 18. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:37.053; 19. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India 1:37.730; 20. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India 1:37.739

Starting grid: 1. Hamilton, 2. Raikkonen, 3. Massa, 4. Alonso, 5. Kovalainen, 6. Heidfeld, 7. Vettel, 8. Trulli, 9. Bourdais, 10. Piquet, 11. Kubica, 12. Glock, 13. Barrichello, 14. Rosberg, 15. Coulthard, 16. Webber, 17. Nakajima, 18. Button, 19. Sutil, 20. Fisichella.—Reuters