Patronise F1

Lewis Hamilton grabbed a big old psychological boost in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, the championship leader slotting his McLaren onto pole position, while his sole realistic rival Felipe Massa ended the session floundering about in 5th place. With a seven point lead already in Hamilton's possession, he'll be looking to firm up his championship hopes in the race tomorrow.

It all came down to the last few seconds of qualifying. as is traditional, and Hamilton hooked up the quickest lap of the heavy-fuelled Q3 to snatch the pole away from Kimi Raikkonen, who had been enjoying an above-average day up until that point, for almost the first time this year. Massa was lying third as the checkered flag came out, but both Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren and Fernando Alonso in the resurgent Renault pipped the Brazilian with their last runs to leave him in all sorts of trouble.

Robert Kubica, still mathematically in with a title shot, ended the day in 6th place, with the two Toyotas making their home crowd happy with seventh and eighth for Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, The pair of Toro Rossos, again outperforming their more illustrious sister squad, ended 9th and 10th after another strongish afternoon.

Back in the earlier parts of the session, the Red Bulls had busted their flushes in Q2, David Coulthard ending 11th and Mark Webber 13th, in a result likely to keep scientists theorising on a reason for years to come. Nelson Piquet Jr was the streaky slip of meat in the RBR sandwich, while the two Williams boys also dropped out in Q2, with Nakajima continuing to outperform Rosberg at his home race, albeit not by much.

The real loser in the session, and not for the first time this year, was Nick Heidfeld, who bowed out in Q1 in another ignominious qualifying session for BMW Sauber. The cry of anguish from Ickle's fans was probably matched by the sigh of relief from the German that he'd already sewn up next years contract with the team.

Honda had another nightmarish time of it, Barrichello and Button will share the penultimate row, while Adrian Sutil outqualified his team mate Giancarlo Fisichella at the very back. Which he'll presumably be happy with.

The other notable bit of news occurred in the ITV coverage. With Steve Rider absent from proceedings, as he proved that his love for Lewis Hamilton doesn't extend as far as missing the chance to front some coverage of England's football team playing a bunch of former USSR hangers-on in a dullard World Cup qualifier at Wembley, Martin Brundle was somewhat weirdly asked to take over presenting duties. And he rather sucked at it.

But away from that, it is advantage Hamilton, as Massa metaphorically stuffs his first serve into the net. And now we wait to see if the Brit can resist the lure of the choke and put himself within touching distance of his first world championship.

It's almost exciting enough to wake up for, isn't it?

* - Eliminated in second session
** - Eliminated in first session