One of Lewis Hamilton’s specialities this season has been the final, unanswerable, flying lap. At Silverstone, in front of his home crowd, Hamilton produced a pole lap more from the heart than the head when the Ferraris were clearly quicker than his McLaren.

In Shanghai, Hamilton planned his critical lap with the precision of a scientist, nailing pole after languishing in fourth place for much of the qualifying session and scrambling the brain of his title rival, Fernando Alonso, with a sudden injection of pace.

His attitude to qualifying yesterday gave the first glimpse of his strategy for the race which will decide his place in history as he aims to become the first driver to win the title in his debut season. He has a wider range of options than his rivals, Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Yet three of his four race victories this season have come from pole. Hamilton could not quite claim his sixth pole of the year yesterday, much to the delight of the Brazilian crowd, who hailed Felipe Massa’s pole in a time of 1min 11.931sec, the only driver to go under 72 seconds, with all the fervour of a race victory.

Hamilton, though, will start alongside the Brazilian on the front row today, critically right in front of Alonso, who, not for the first time this season, struggled with his set-up. Had Raikkonen not slipped fractionally wide during his final lap, Ferrari would have claimed both places on the front row, but Alonso, as in China, will have to negotiate both Ferraris and Hamilton to keep hold of his title. He profited then from Hamilton’s mistake, but the Spaniard will need another one today.

After the overcast, drizzly conditions of Friday, the temperature of the plush new tarmac at Interlagos had reached 61 degrees by the start of qualifying, rendering all data from the opening practice sessions irrelevant. If the burning sun holds into this afternoon, the race will be attritional, for drivers and tyres.

Hamilton’s ability to learn the complexities of an unknown circuit quickly has been another strength. Three of his four victories so far this season have come on uncharted tracks, in north America and Japan; in China, he qualified on pole.

Contrary to his normal routine, the British driver did not spend hours in the simulator, deciding instead to learn the track when he arrived. He was quickly out of the garage yesterday morning in the final free practice, mapping the right braking areas and the fastest lines.

A game of cat and mouse between the two McLaren drivers endured through the morning and into the qualifying session, Hamilton’s last lap just before the end of free practice dividing the two Ferraris of Massa and Raikkonen and laying down a marker for the Spaniard, who could not quite match his teammate’s pace.

Round one to the championship leader.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis admitted it would have been nice to have one of his team’s drivers on pole, but is confident about the outcome today. “We will be trying to win the world championship with one of our drivers,” he said, adding that he is now hoping for a “good clean fight and a good conclusion to the world championship”.

Hamilton was happy enough with his performance. “It was very close. I really enjoyed the qualifying session,” he said. “The car was good to drive, and I produced a good lap, losing a little bit of time in the last corner. “But apart from that, I’m very happy. It’s a good place to start. I’m just buzzing. I’m really excited. I feel very relaxed, the car is great and I love the circuit.”