Hamilton captures Hungary pole position

BUDAPEST, Hungary, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Englishman Lewis Hamilton has won the pole position for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.

While driving the No. 22 McLaren Mercedes, the Stevenage, England, native circled the 2.72-mile, 14-turn Hungaroring course in 1 minute, 20.899 seconds during Saturday's qualifying to capture his second straight pole for a Formula One race.

It is Hamilton's fourth pole this season and 10th of his F1 career.

He won it after deciding to use harder tires for better handling in Budapest's warm weather conditions.

"We made the right choice (tires) in the end," the F1 standings leader told the BBC. "We had planned to use the soft tire for the third part of qualifying but it was the safer option to use the hard."

McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen will join him on the front row.

Kovalainen ran a second-best time of 1 minute, 21.140 seconds.

Felipe Massa (1:21.191) and Robert Kubica (1:21.281) will start on Row 2 and Raikkonen, the F1 champion, will start sixth.