Shanghai, China (My Sportsbook) - After a disappointing 12th-place finish last weekend in Japan, Lewis Hamilton rebounded in his World Championship campaign Saturday by winning the pole for the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.

The McLaren driver held off Ferrari rivals Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa by posting a time of one minute, 36.303 seconds on the final lap.

It was Hamilton's seventh pole of the season and the 13th of his Formula One career.

"We've been very competitive all weekend," Hamilton said. "Practice has gone very well, and qualifying was one of our best. My first Q3 wasn't so great, but I managed to put it together on the last lap. And it was as close as I could get to a perfect lap."

Hamilton holds a five-point lead over second-place Massa in the F1 standings with just two races to go in the season.

Raikkonen will start on the outside pole after recording a time of 1:36.645.

Massa (1:36.889) and Fernando Alonso (1:36.927) will start on the second row.

"I hope to have a strong pace in the race, and maybe try to see if we can improve our car in the long runs," Massa said.

Hamilton's teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, will start fifth. Mark Webber qualified sixth, but will have to drop 10 places after an engine change. Webber blew an engine during practice earlier in the day.

Nick Heidfeld, Sebastian Vettel, Jarno Trulli and Sebastien Bourdais completed the top-10.

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica was the biggest surprise in qualifying as he was knocked out in the second round. Kubica, currently 12 points behind Hamilton, qualified 12th. It's just the second time this year the Pole has been eliminated in the first two rounds of qualifying. He finished second in the Japanese Grand Prix.

The race begins Sunday at 3:00 a.m. (et).