Lewis Hamilton with Felipe Massa (right) and Heikki Kovalainen at the Hockenheim race track on Saturday. (AP)

Hockenheim: McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton edged Felipe Massa with his final lap on Saturday to claim pole position for the German Grand Prix.

Hamilton went around in 1 minute, 15.666 seconds on his last flying lap to beat his Ferrari counterpart by 0.193 seconds and start first on the grid for the third time this season.

Meanwhile, Force India’s struggle to come out of a jinx came to a zilch again and Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella will start on Sunday from the back of the grid.

“I knew I had it in me, I knew we had the pace,” said Hamilton after claiming his ninth pole in 27 races. “I’m really happy with it, I won’t say there’s anything I particularly have to improve on.”

Hamilton dominated Friday’s practice and is coming off a 68-second victory at the British GP, which gave him the advantage in a three-way tie at the top of Formula One’s championship. Massa and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen also have 48 points.

McLaren has shown significant improvement to its car since last month’s French GP, with Heikki Kovalainen leading the second row for Sunday’s 67-lap race. The 26-year-old Finn recovered from an early driving error on his penultimate lap to post the third fastest time on his final chance. Jarno Trulli of Toyota fills the second row from fourth, ahead of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso in his Renault.

Massa was pleased to be back on the front row after a Silverstone performance marked by five spins and a 13th-place finish — last of the drivers who managed to complete the rain-hit race.

“Tough, for sure very tight,” the Brazilian said of the difference between main rivals McLaren and Ferrari.

Defending world champion Raikkonen will start from sixth ahead of Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber. Kubica, who trails the leaders by two points, has struggled at Hockenheim all weekend.

“Sometimes you can have a bad day,” Massa said of Raikkonen’s performance. “Kimi maybe wasn’t too happy with the car and these things can happen. He can be strong tomorrow (Sunday) in the race.”(AP)

HOCKENHEIM statistics

Number of laps — 67
Circuit length — 4.574 km
Race distance — 306.458 km
Lap record — 1:13.780 by Kimi Raikkonen (2004)

Winners in the last 5 races
2007 — No race
2006 — Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)
2005 — Fernando Alonso (Renault)
2004 — Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)
2003 — Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams-BMW)
2002 — Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)