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Button pips Raikkonen to pole
Formula 1, 14:50, May 23, 2009 ,
Jenson Button pipped Kimi Raikkonen to land his fourth pole position of the season following a dramatic qualifying session in Monaco.
The Championship leader managed to secure his place at the front of the grid with a time of one minute 14.902 seconds with the last lap of the session.
"I was right on the edge on that lap. I'm absolutely chuffed to bits to snatch pole. I was a long way off in first practice but all the way through the weekend we've improved it bit by bit. This car listens to changes, unlike last year's," Button told BBC Sport.
Rubens Barrichello took third place behind Raikkonen to make it a good day for the Brawn GP team.
However, the same can not be said for Lewis Hamiliton who had looked good in practice but threw away his chance of winning in the principality after he lost his back end and broke his rear suspension in the first part of qualifying.
The current world champion will now start from sixteenth on the grid and hopes he can learn from the mistake he made at the Mirabeau hairpin.
"I don't know what I was thinking, I made a mistake," Hamilton told BBC Sport. "I apologise to the team for wasting their time.
"It's been tough but you learn from these mistakes. They are bound to happen, but it's just a shame it happened in the first qualifying session.
"My race weekend for a win is for sure over."