Lewis Hamilton grabbed the second pole position of his career one week on from his first as the British rookie stole a march on McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso in qualifying for Sunday's United States Grand Prix.
Hamilton clocked a fastest lap of one minute 12.331 seconds, ahead of Alonso's second fastest time of 1:12.5000 with Ferrari's Felipe Massa claiming third place on the grid for the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with 1:12.703.
Double world champion Alonso had been quicker than Hamilton throughout the three practice sessions and the first two qualifying periods in Indianapolis before the 22-year-old championship leader pulled out his quick lap to grab pole, just as he had done at Montreal in Canada last Saturday.
Massa's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen will start in fourth place, while Nick Heidfeld, second last weekend behind Hamilton, will start on the third row alongside sixth-fastest qualifier Heikki Kovalainen of Renault.
Debutant Sebastian Vettel, who has replaced Robert Kubica in the second BMW Sauber for the weekend, qualified in seventh with Jarno Trulli of Toyota eighth, Red Bull's Mark Webber ninth and the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella rounding out the top 10.
Hamilton had headed a line of the remaining cars eager to get out of the pits when the green light went on for the third qualifying session, the final shootout round for the top 10 grid positions.
Alonso waited for some clear track before he entered the fray.
It was Hamilton who initially went quickest on the heavier fuel loads at the start of the 15-minute session, with Alonso second, Heidfeld third and Raikkonen fourth.
Then the bulk of the field pitted with around five minutes to go, with Hamilton among the drivers opting for the softer compound tyres.
Massa briefly went quickest before Hamilton regained control, ahead of Alonso, with the Brazilian down to third.
In qualifying two, Trulli and Fisichella had been languishing in the knockout zone until they pulled out quick laps in the dying seconds, dumping David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher, Trulli's Toyota team-mate, into the knockout zone.
Also eliminated were the Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg of Williams and Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson.
Alonso and Hamilton occupied the one and two spots, followed by the Ferraris of Raikkonen and Massa.
The first knockout round had also seen Alonso run fastest, followed by Hamilton, with the Renault's of Kovalainen and Fisichella next best, ahead of the Ferrari duo.
Davidson had leapt out of the bottom six with a minute to spare, improving from 19th to ninth, while veterans Barrichello, Trulli and Schumacher also extricated themselves from the cut zone with late flying laps.
Less fortunate was Williams driver Alexander Wurz, who after finishing third in Montreal last week was knocked out early at Indy and must start from 17th on the grid.
Also expelled were Super Aguri's Takuma Sato, the Toro Rosso drivers Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi, and Spyker's Adrian Sutil and Christijan Albers.
