HOCKENHEIM, Germany — McLaren's Lewis Hamilton edged Felipe Massa on the final lap today to take the pole position for the German Grand Prix.

Hamilton posted a time of 1 minute, 15.666 seconds that bested his Ferrari counterpart by 0.193 seconds. Hamilton will start first on the grid for the third time this season.

"I knew I had it in me, I knew we had the pace," Hamilton said. "I'm really happy with it, I won't say there's anything I particularly have to improve on."

Hamilton dominated Friday's practice and is coming off a 68-second victory at the British GP that gave him the advantage in a three-way tie atop the Formula One standings. The Briton has the tiebreaker against Ferrari drivers Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, who also have 48 points.

Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen will lead the second row for Sunday's 67-lap race. He recovered from an early driving error to post the third fastest time.

"I just lost the rear end and went wide. Maybe I was just trying to go too deep into the corner," said the Finn, whose car sustained some damage.

Jarno Trulli of Toyota fills the second row from fourth, ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso.

Defending world champion Raikkonen will start from sixth ahead of Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber. Kubica, who trails the leaders by two points, has struggled at Hockenheim all weekend.

"Sometimes you can have a bad day," Massa said of Raikkonen's performance.

Conditions improved from Friday when rain fell over the track in the morning before drying up slightly in the afternoon. Hamilton handled both sets of conditions with ease.

"I feel very happy with what we've done," the 23-year-old Briton said.

No McLaren driver has won at Hockenheim since Mika Hakkinen 10 years ago, while Ferrari has five victories in Germany since then, the last coming with Michael Schumacher in 2006.

Red Bull's Mark Webber will start eighth ahead of Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel, with David Coulthard - who will be replaced at Red Bull by Vettel next year - starting 10th.

Nick Heidfeld, who trails F1's leaders by 10 points, will start 12th after driving off at the Spitzkehre turn on his lap at the end of the second session.

"I locked the rear wheels going into the rear hairpin and lost so much time that I aborted the lap," the German driver said.