History beckons Lewis Hamilton in Shanghai this morning. Under immense pressure, the young Briton delivered in style in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix yesterday, taking pole position to give himself the best possible chance of winning both the race and the world championship.

Knowing he was only fifth-fastest after the first of his two flying laps in the final qualifying session, he produced a final lap of almost stunning brilliance to relegate Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa to second and third.

It was, Hamilton acknowledged, pretty much as close as he could get to perfect. The question now is whether he can replicate that commanding form in the race, particularly in the approach to the first corner. With Raikkonen alongside him, Massa directly behind and Renault’s Fernando Alonso — who has made it startlingly clear he will do what he can to prevent his former McLaren teammate winning the title — fourth, Hamilton desperately needs a clean getaway.

If he gets it, there is such a confidence and self-belief about him and his team that few objective observers would be surprised to see him take the race by the scruff of the neck. “We’ve seen him do classic flag-to-flag drives, and he could well do that,” said Patrick Head, Williams’s experienced director of engineering.

In part Hamilton’s determination is fuelled by a sense of injustice, if not anger. Well though he has been trained, and tough and focused though he is, in emotional terms the 23-year-old is no Michael Schumacher, and he has found the criticism he has received from fellow drivers in recent weeks hard to take.

Harsh treatment at the hands of race stewards and to some extent the media he has become used to and learnt to compartmentalise, but the resentment and jealousy of men he would like to consider friends as well as rivals is something he still finds difficult to understand, let alone come to terms with.

To throw it back in their faces with a commanding drive on a circuit which, with its long back straight, had been expected to favour the superior straight-line speed of the Ferraris would be satisfying, to say the least, but Hamilton did not need reminding that he had picked up only 14 points from the past four races.

“We came here strong, determined and in a good frame of mind, and we’ve been very competitive all weekend. The practice sessions have gone well and qualifying was one of the best,” he said.

“I didn’t have anything hanging over me and I didn’t have anything else on my mind except for doing a good lap. I was relaxed, I was happy with the balance of the car, it was just a case of going out and doing it.

“You can see from our result that we are dealing with quite well. I have a huge amount of support from back home, from my team and from my family, which is so important for me. I have to thank the team. They have done a fantastic job this weekend after not such a strong weekend in Fuji.

“It was tough, for sure, because everyone was competitive, even Heikki but I’m happy I got the lap done.”

In fact, not everyone was competitive. Robert Kubica, the only driver other than Massa who could prevent Hamilton winning the world championship, had a disastrous session and will start 11th, all but ending his slim title chances. The BMW driver has struggled with the balance of his car all weekend, and changes made shortly before qualifying didn’t help.

Nor did Kovalainen deliver in qualifying fifth. Asked how much help he could give his teammate from the third row, the Finn replied simply, “Not much.”

More encouragingly for Hamilton, Massa’s body language was almost as gloomy as Kubica’s after he found himself on the second row.

“I’m not going to pretend I’m not disappointed. It’s difficult to put everything together. McLaren a little bit more easy to put a lap together,” said Massa.

“Anyway, we don’t know how it’s going to be in the race. We had a similar result in qualifying in Japan but had a strong race pace. I hope to have a strong pace in the race and try to see if we can improve our car a little bit in the long stints.”

There is another factor over which Hamilton has no control. The forecast is for showers, possibly storms, and although Hamilton has shown himself supreme in the wet and Massa has struggled, heavy rain always brings with it an element of chance, not to mention the likely appearance of the safety car.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said: “The race will be a long one, and there is some doubt about the weather, but the crucial elements in getting the right result here will be the usual ones: first and foremost reliability, then tyre performance, the work of the team and drivers, and strategy and car performance.”

It is important for the sport that the race is decided on the track, not in the stewards’ room. Some of the decisions in recent weeks have been baffling, attracting so much opprobrium that Alan Donnelly, speaking for the sport’s governing body, the FIA, has found it necessary to insist that they have all been “well thought out”.