Silverstone, England ? Lewis Hamilton moved a big step closer to becoming the first Englishman since Damon Hill in 1994 to win the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton took the pole position Saturday for 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.”

Hamilton had a fastest lap of 1 minute, 19.997 seconds in his McLaren on the 3.2-mile circuit as time ran out in the qualifying session, edging Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari by 0.102 seconds.

Hamilton now will 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 left.

“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.”

Two-time defending Formula One champion Alonso was third for McLaren in 1:20.147. Massa was fourth for Ferrari in 1:20.265.