Hamilton puts McLaren on pole in Germany

By Alan Baldwin

HOCKENHEIM, Germany (Reuters) - Championship leader Lewis Hamilton piled the pressure on his Formula One title rivals on Saturday by putting McLaren on pole position for engine partners Mercedes' home German Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old Briton will share Sunday's front row with Ferrari's Felipe Massa, the Brazilian who is level on 48 points with Hamilton and his own world champion team mate Kimi Raikkonen at the halfway point in the season.

Raikkonen, on pole at Hockenheim for McLaren in 2005 and 2006, qualified a distant sixth for Ferrari alongside Renault's Fernando Alonso.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen will start third, paying the price for some 'rallycross moments' in the final session, with Italian Jarno Trulli fourth for Toyota in what amounts to a second home race for the Cologne-based Japanese team.

The pole was Hamilton's third of the season and ninth in 27 Formula One starts.

"My lap was pretty smooth, you know, it was pretty easy going and I'm quite comfortable that we could have gone a little bit quicker if we needed to," said Hamilton, the runaway winner in Britain two weeks ago. "I felt quite cool."

The changeable conditions and swirling wind, with the car buffeted by gusts down the back straight, made life difficult but Hamilton kept it all together to secure his first pole since Canada in June.

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