The British driver will start first on the grid for the fourth time this season, after dominating practice and qualifying in Budapest.

McLaren teammate Heiki Kovalainen will line up in second place, with Felipe Massa in third, BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica in fourth, and Toyota's Timo Klock and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in fifth and sixth positions.

Scorching temperatures of 42 degrees during the latter part of yesterday's qualifyins meant the teams had to make some changes in their choice of tyres, with McLaren's decision to opt for hard tyres proving tactically astute.

Toro-Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais was penalised five grid places for inadvertently impeding Heidfeld's best Q1 lap, but that was no consolation for the German, who failed to make it through to the second session, pipped by Jenson Button at the end of Q1.

Button, driving for the Brackley-based Honda Racing team, secured his best grid position for five races, on a track where he won two years ago, and is 12th on the grid. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello, on softer tyres only managed 18th sport after making a mistake on Turn 11 in Q1.

Silverstone-based Force India-Ferrari finished with Giancarlo Fisichella in 19th spot, who moved up to 18th after Bourdais' penalty. Team-mate Adrian Sutil, struggling with understeer caused by tyre graining, is in 20th position.

Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Results:
1. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 1 min 20.899 secs
2. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.140
3. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1:21.191
4. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:21.281
5. Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:21.326
6. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:21.516
7. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:21.698
8. Mark Webber (Aus) RedBull - Renault 1:21.732
9. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:21.767
10. Nelson Piquet (Brz) Renault 1:22.371
11. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:20.144
12. Jenson Button (GB) Honda 1:20.332
13. David Coulthard (GB) RedBull - Renault 1:20.502
14. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams - Toyota
15. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:21.045
16. Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams - Toyota 1:21.085
17. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:21.332
18. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India - Ferrari 1:21.670
19. Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:20.963 *
20. Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India - Ferrari 1:22.113
*five place grid penalty