SILVERSTONE (ENGLAND) - LEWIS Hamilton wants to become the first Englishman since Damon Hill in 1994 to win the British Grand Prix.

He took the pole position yesterday in his first Formula One race in his homeland, and later attributed his success to the support of the crowd at the Silverstone circuit.

'You definitely get a confidence boost and you feel the support,' he said. 'It is not just a certain group of people in the stands or certain places. Here, it is the whole grandstand.

'It's been fantastic and I really do appreciate the support.

'To see the amount of support I get and see the flags waving. I get a big buzz from that and get a lot of energy.'

He clocked 1min 19.997sec in his McLaren on the 5.1-km circuit, as time ran out in the qualifying session, to edge Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari by 0.102 sec.

Hamilton will now try to extend his perfect eight-for-eight streak of top-three finishes in his rookie F1 season.

He leads the driver standings with 64 points, 14 ahead of Fernando Alonso and 17 in front of Felipe Massa, with nine races remaining.

'It was an extremely tense qualifying session. It was all down to the last lap,' Hamilton said. 'I really had to pull it all out.

'I came to the first corner and I tried to do it quicker than ever and tried to maintain that pace.'

Alonso, the two-time champion with Renault before moving to McLaren this season, was third in 1:20.147. He had led with times of 1:19.330 and 1:19.152 in the first two sessions that eliminate the six slowest cars.

Massa was fourth for Ferrari in 1:20.265 ahead of today's 60-lap race.

It was the third pole this season for Hamilton - after the races in Canada and the United States, which he won.

He received a huge ovation from the packed stands as he came back to the pits.

'I saw the reaction of the fans. It was a great buzz,' he said. 'I nearly lost my voice. I came across the line and I was screaming just as loud as them.'

Last year, Alonso won the pole and the race in the middle of a string of victories to establish a big lead in the standings.

Raikkonen, who won last week's French GP, was the fastest in practice on Friday before qualifying. He said he made a mistake on the final turn.

'I just ran wide onto the grass,' he said.

It will be the first time that Raikkonen starts on the front row since the opening race of the 2007 season when he won the Australian GP from pole position.

Last week, the Finn started from third and overtook Hamilton on the first lap and Massa at the second pit stop to win in France.