FORMULA 1 TEAM HONDA, COULD BE WITHDRAWING FROM FORMULA 1, WE DO N OT KNOW WHY BUT EXPECT TO HEAR NEWS SOON.

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Lewis Hamilton gave himself a huge opportunity to increase his world championship lead in Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix by claiming a stunning pole position at Fuji.

The McLaren driver headed into his final Q3 lap staring at a provisional Ferrari front-row lockout – but ended it looking at a very different picture after his, and others', late improvements created a four-car buffer between himself and main title rival Felipe Massa on the grid.

The other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen had looked set to score his first pole position since Magny-Cours in June following two strong laps in Q3, before Hamilton responded to that challenge with a brilliant 1m18.404s effort to take pole by 0.2s.

Massa, meanwhile, had looked on course for third at this stage before the second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen did his team-mate a huge favour by demoting the Brazilian to fourth with a fast final lap of his own.

Then, to make tomorrow’s race even more of an uphill struggle for Massa, Renault’s Fernando Alonso then dropped the Ferrari to fifth.

It surely now hands Hamilton a golden chance to move a giant step closer to his world championship dream and increase his seven-point title advantage over Massa with only China and Brazil to come.

Joining a disappointed Massa on the third row will be Robert Kubica, the sole BMW in the pole position shootout after team-mate Nick Heidfeld created the big qualifying shock by failing to get beyond Q1.

Meanwhile, Fuji owner Toyota set itself up for a strong home race by annexing the fourth row.

Jarno Trulli showed his renowned qualifying prowess by getting ahead of team-mate Timo Glock despite trailing the German throughout all three practice sessions.

Toro Rosso pair Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais continued the team’s recent strong form to complete the top 10 and their Q3 times suggest they have been heavily fuelled for a long first stint.

Their performances once again earned STR the bragging rights in the Red Bull stable, as neither of the ‘A’ squad’s cars made the top 10.

David Coulthard got within eight hundredths of a second for Red Bull Racing and his 11th place arguably represents one of his best single-lap performances this year after he outqualified his qualifying demon team-mate Mark Webber (13th) for just the second time.

Splitting the RBR pair was the similarly Renault-powered Nelson Piquet Jr after the under-pressure Brazilian again failed to translate his encouraging practice performance into a top-10 grid slot.

Williams also fell back following its decent start to the weekend and Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg will start 14th and 15th respectively.

However, home favourite Nakajima did at least celebrate the recent confirmation that he will remain at the team for 2009 by getting the better of his more experienced team-mate.

Directly behind the duo, Heidfeld will be hoping for rain on Sunday after his second Q1 elimination of the year left him staring up at the rest from 16th on the grid.

The German driver was finally re-signed by BMW this week after his recent form convinced the team he had overcome the single-lap problems that have blighted his season – but a problematic set-up left him marooned below the cut line.

Making up the penultimate row of the grid will be the sport’s other Japanese team, Honda, after the increasingly uncompetitive RA108 only just managed to stave off Force India.

Rubens Barrichello edged out team-mate Jenson Button in the ever tight Honda qualifying duel, while Force India Adrian Sutil can take heart from lapping under 0.1s slower than Button and outqualifying his own team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.(www.f1.itv.com)

If all that glitters is not gold for McLaren in Monte Carlo next weekend and the British team fail to repeat the spectacular one-two that defined last year’s race, then it will be through no fault of the British team's partner Steinmetz. The world-famous diamond company will provide Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen with specially commissioned diamond-encrusted helmets for the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix.

Over recent months, Steinmetz’s in-house design team has worked closely with both Hamilton and Kovalainen to create two unique helmets, custom made to each of their individual tastes.

Alongside the new one-off designs, the exclusive head gear also boasts each driver’s signature set with hundreds of the company’s handcrafted diamonds. And the glamorous embellishments seem to have gone down well with both drivers.

“I really like what Steinmetz has done this year and am looking forward to the Monaco Grand Prix weekend,” Hamilton said. “As some people might know I am very particular about my helmet but it looks great and will add some extra sparkle to the event.”

Kovalainen added: “I’m always really excited about the Monaco Grand Prix - it really is the one that all drivers want to win. To be able to race at this prestigious event with Steinmetz diamonds on my helmet will bring something special to the occasion.”

Hamilton received his helmet at McLaren’s factory in Woking earlier this week whilst the Finn will receive his next Wednesday in Monaco, ahead of Thursday’s opening practice session.