Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's European Grand Prix, the McLaren Mercedes partnership's 200th GP since their first Formula 1 win in 1997, from the front row of the grid. In Saturday's exciting qualifying, Lewis posted a fastest lap of 1m39.199 which put him second. His team-mate Heikki Kovalainen qualified fifth with a time of 1m39.937. The session on the new Valencia street circuit was extremely closely-fought, particularly during Q1 and Q2. In the first part, all 20 drivers were covered by two seconds, in the second, the remaining 15 drivers were within nine tenths of one another.
Qualifying Session One:
3 laps, 1:38.464 (6th)
Qualifying Session Two:
6 laps, 1:37.954 (5th)
Qualifying Session Three:
6 laps, 1:39.199 (2nd)
"We knew we had a great car and we didn't have any problems during qualifying. I felt really comfortable, and I decided to qualify with the option tyre. My first lap wasn’t perfect, and I lost almost one second compared with my second lap, but on my final lap everything went well. Second place on the grid is a good basis for tomorrow's race. However, Felipe Massa was significantly faster in the first sector, and I hope we’ll be able to improve there tomorrow. Our team did a great job, and I’m confident we’ll be strong."
