looks in superb shape to take a third victory of the season at the Formula 1 finale in on Sunday.
The McLaren driver was and he was still half a second clear when the amount of fuel in the cars was taken into account - an astonishing margin in a season that has been so close.
The cars in the top 10 qualifying shoot-out are not allowed to refuel between qualifying and the race, so the amount of fuel they carry dictates their pace on Saturday as well as when they will make their first pit stops on Sunday.
So grid positions can be misleading until the and the ramifications of that calculated. Assessing those figures underlines just how strong Hamilton is looking.
This is ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sport's fuel-adjusted Abu Dhabi Grand Prix grid, with projected first pit stops:
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When Formula 1 returned to the desert for its season finale in Abu Dhabi memories of sprang to The Mole's mind; the flat golden horizon, the dry heat and sand sweeping across the circuit - and everywhere else.
All these things remain the same in - just 263 miles east of Bahrain - but the Yas Marina circuit is something else entirely.
The £800m-track has been dubbed the 'Arabian Monaco' but there is more than a dash of panache to the island complex carved out of the desert.
Team ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ landed long after sunset on Wednesday but despite the darkness our first impression of the circuit was a jumble of "wow, crazy, amazing, it's huge!"
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Early next week, there will be a change to how you leave comments on this blog - we're upgrading our current registration system to a new and improved one. When you log in to the new system, you will be prompted to upgrade your existing account, and you should be able to do that with a minimum of fuss. More details on this can be found on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Internet Blog.
The Mole welcomes ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz to the blog to give his inside line on the Brazilian Grand Prix.
BRAWN
Spending a few extra days in South America, and without a computer, I haven't seen much of Britain's at the Brazilian Grand Prix. In the insular world of the Formula 1 paddock, though, there was a general feeling of goodwill towards Button, despite the intense rivalries between all the teams.
Other drivers and team bosses I spoke to agreed that Button deserved the title, that Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel will get his chance to be champion, that Rubens Barrichello probably won't, and that it will be interesting to have what is effectively a non-drivers' championship race in Abu Dhabi just for fun.
It's this last thought that intrigued Button's race engineer Andrew Shovlin when we spoke on the pit wall after the race. He was pleased that at last we will be able to see whether Jenson's drop in form since Turkey was because of the car, or due to the immense pressure he was putting on himself to get the job done.
Brawn's Jenson Button is surrounded by photographers after clinching the 2009 world title
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The Brazilian Grand Prix looks like being a straight fight between Rubens Barrichello and Mark Webber.
The , and the subsequent mixed-up grid, makes drawing definitive conclusions from the fuel-adjusted lap times difficult.
The drivers in the top 10 shoot-out are not allowed to refuel between qualifying and the race, so their pace is dictated by how much fuel they have on board.
And once the weight of fuel in the cars in the final session is taken into account, Red Bull's Webber emerges as the fastest man in the field, with pole-man Barrichello second, albeit by a margin of only 0.056 seconds.
Qualifying was held in the wet, and forecasts for the race are mixed. But it is still possible to draw a sense of who might be in best shape for the race.
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The monsoon rain in Sao Paulo may have stalled Saturday's qualifying session but the deluge couldn't dampen the Brazilian passion for Formula 1.
I, home to the Brazilian Grand Prix for the last 19 years, is a place of pilgrimage - and more often than not a good spot for a party too.
But to better understand the roots of the nation's passion for motor racing the Mole first paid a visit to the .
There, at the peak of the hill and under the shade of a single tree, lies the final resting place of .
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