SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton clinched pole position for tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix ahead of his main challenger Felipe Massa, on a track that was supposed to favor the Ferrari car.

Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen took third place on the grid, with Ferrrari driver and world champion Kimmi Raikkonen finishing fourth.

"The team made no mistakes and I made no mistakes," said Hamilton after clinching his fifth pole of the season. "I'm more and more comfortable in the car."

BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was fifth, edging former world champion Fernando Alonso of Renault.

Hamilton set a time of 1 minute, 47.338 seconds on Saturday in the qualifying session at the 4.352-mile Spa-Francorchamps circuit, beating Massa by 0.340 seconds.

It was a sizable margin on a circuit where the Ferrari car has traditionally done well. Massa, who trails Hamilton 70-64 in the world point standings, could not figure what went wrong.

"Sometimes you do a great lap and you still miss something," Massa said. "I need to understand why."

Raikkonen, trailing Hamilton by 13 points, continued to disappoint on a circuit he safely can call his own since he won the last three races here.

He spun off in practice on Friday, and has been chasing his teammate Massa all weekend.

If Raikkonen is to challenge for the title over the last six of 18 races, he will have to start piling on the points here, considering he has not won a race since April.