FORMULA ONE

• Hamilton on pole for Chinese GP

  
  

  Shanghai, China (Sports Network) - Kimi Raikkonen was fastest in every practice session, but that didn't help him during qualifying, as Lewis Hamilton captured the pole for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.

  The No.2 McLaren circled the 3.386-mile, 16-turn circuit in one minute, 35.908 seconds to take the top spot.

  The pole victory was Hamilton's second in a row, fifth of the season and fifth of his Formula One career.

  Starting on the front row with Hamilton will be Raikkonen who posted a second-best time of 1:36.044.

  Felipe Massa (1:36.221) and Fernando Alonso (1:36.576) will make up row two.

  Raikkonen won the first session that saw the elimination of Ruben Barrichello, Giancarlo Fisichella, Alex Wurz, Takuma Sato, Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto.

  Raikkonen also won the second session. Knocked out were: Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sebastien Vettel, Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen, Anthony Davidson and Nico Rosberg.

  Massa put up the early time to beat in the final session, but Hamilton and Raikkonen both surpassed it on their final laps.

  It's down to two races and essentially two drivers for this year's drivers championship. They are teammates, who don't get along and barely speak to each other - rookie Hamilton and two-time World Champion Alonso.

  "I'd much rather it were Fernando at Ferrari and me at McLaren," said Hamilton before last Sunday's race at the Fuji Speedway.

  But at least he sometimes talks to Alonso. The same can't be said for Alonso and team boss Ron Dennis.

  They don't talk and haven't since the qualifying debacle in Hungary. It was there that Alonso threatened to reveal evidence about "spygate." Hamilton won last week's race in Japan, his fourth victory this season, to build a commanding 12-point lead over Alonso.

  Should he leave the Shanghai International Circuit with a 10-point margin, he will dethrone Alonso and clinch the title.

  Mathematically, still in the chase is Raikkonen - 17 points back. However, he would have to collect the maximum 20 points in the final two events and basically have both McLaren drivers fail to score.

  "Obviously, we have just a little hope for the championship," said the Finn on his official website. "But it is better to have a slight hope than no hope at all." The Chinese GP is scheduled to drop the green flag on Sunday at 2 a.m. (et).

  10/06 03:11:48 ET