FORMULA ONE

• Hamilton wins pole in rain at Japan

  
  

  Oyama, Japan (Sports Network) - Battling rain and fog Formula One series points leader Lewis Hamilton captured the pole for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway. The No.2 McLaren circled the 2.835-mile, 16-turn circuit in one minute, 25.368 seconds to take the top spot.

  The pole victory was Hamilton's fourth of the season and of his Formula One career.

  Starting on the front row with Hamilton will be Fernando Alonso who posted a second-best time of 1:25.438.

  Kimi Raikkonen (1:25.516) and Felipe Massa (1:25.765) will make up row two.

  Massa won the first session that saw the elimination of Rubens Barrichello, Alex Wurz, Anthony Davidson, Adrian Sutil, Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto. Ralf Schumacher was effectively knocked out when he crashed with one of the Spyker cars (Yamamoto) in the final minutes of the session.

  Hamilton won the second session setting up a great final qualifying session. Knocked out were: Giancarlo Fisichella, Heikki Kovalainen, David Coulthard, Jarno Trulli, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Ralf Schumacher.

  Alonso put up the early time to beat in the final session which included Sebastian Vettel and Toro Rosso for the first time in their history. He held it until Hamilton's final lap when the youngster bettered his time by 0.070 seconds.

  The Formula One championship has been a four-man race since the beginning, and it still is, with three races left in the season.

  Hamilton, McLaren's rookie sensation, leads the series with three wins and 97 points. But after opening with nine consecutive podium finishes, Hamilton left the door open by finishing off the podium in three of the last five events.

  Two-time World Champion Alonso, also of McLaren, has seized on the opportunity winning two of the last five events to close to within two points of Hamilton.

  Ferrari's Raikkonen trails by just 13 points and teammate Massa is 20 points behind Hamilton.

  The Japanese GP has been held at Suzuka International Racing Course for the last 20 years, but will return to the Fuji Speedway for the first time since 1977. Formula One has raced there two times.

  In 1976, Mario Andretti won a rain-filled race in his Lotus, but James Hunt won the championship by out-pointing Niki Lauda. Lauda withdrew from the race after three laps citing dangerous conditions.

  The next year, Hunt won the race, but Gilles Villeneuve was involved in a crash that killed two people on the side of the track. After the event, Japan would not hold another F1 race for 10 years and then the venue was shifted to Suzuka.

  In 2003 the Fuji circuit was closed for redesign by Hermann Tilke. It reopened in 2005 with a 1.5 km straight, which will be the longest in F1.

  The Japanese GP is scheduled to drop the green flag on Sunday at 12 a.m. (et).

  09/29 02:13:49 ET