With a dramatic late lap to beat Force India’s Adrian Sutil by just two-tenths of a second, Lewis Hamilton gave McLaren Mercedes pole position in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on Saturday.

After he clocked a last-gasp time of one minute and 24.066 seconds ahead of Sutil, who was 0.195 secs behind, defending world champion Hamilton took the 15th pole of his career.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in third and McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen in fourth fill the second row, while championship leader Jenson Button was sixth behind Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello in fifth spot.

Hamilton told reporters, “It was a very close qualifying session, and I’m very happy to see Adrian up here. Since Formula 3 it’s been a long time since we’ve been in a press conference together, and on the front row. But it was such a great feeling to put a great lap together. People need to understand, you have one shot at it at the end, so to pull it off is amazing. I don’t think we anticipated being just as quick as we are this weekend, so it’s a bonus to everyone in the team.”

After Giancarlo Fisichella took pole in Belgium and then finished second before deciding to join Ferrari as the stand-in for the injured Felipe Massa, Sutil was happy with his team’s continued good form.

He said, “It’s a great moment, a great day. The whole weekend has been a big success. The car is amazing. This is a continuation of the work we did at Spa, and the good feeling of being a race driver is back. It’s a great feeling.”

(via CNN)