Hamilton dominates qualifying at Spanish Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton has been on pole twice this season but is yet to win a race McLaren's Lewis Hamilton is on pole for the Spanish Grand Prix Pastor Maldonado takes a surprise second for Williams, his highest grid position McLaren's Jenson Button is down in 11th, one ahead of Mark Webber's Red Bull Sebastian Vettel conserves his tires and settles for eighth on the grid (CNN) -- Lewis Hamilton scorched to his third pole position of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday in a qualifying session that again highlighted the conundrum over tires. Hamilton's dazzling final lap was 0.578 seconds quicker than Pastor Maldonaldo, who will surprisingly line up alongside the Englishman's McLaren in his Williams. "I think it's one of the best ones I've ever had," said Hamilton, who was second at the Circuit de Catalunya last year. This has always been a great place for me. Fernando Alonso gave his home country something to cheer by qualifying third for Ferrari. He is followed by the Lotus pair of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen. But it was a bad day for Jenson Button in the other McLaren, who will start 11th, and Red Bull's Mark Webber, who could only manage 12th. Button had handling problems with his car, while Webber was told by his team to come back to the pits in the second session believing the Australian had gone quick enough to qualify for the top-10 shootout. In the end, Webber, last year's pole-sitter in Barcelona, was nudged out. Double world champion Sebastian Vettel did make it through but didn't push for pole, preferring to save his tires for a race which is expected to be decided by tire strategy. Michael Schumacher opted to do the same and will start ninth in his Mercedes, just behind Vettel's Red Bull. "There is nothing is wrong," Vettel said. We decided to abort the lap to have a free choice of tires for the race. If I had set a lap, we would have to start the race on soft tires. We'll see how it goes for tomorrow. We were a bit surprised how much of a step the others could do, but I'm quite confident for race. We always have a good race car. We have a couple of new sets which has proved successful for others in previous races this year. Button had been quickest in Friday practice but couldn't rediscover that pace a day later. I don't know where it went wrong. All day I've struggled with balance," the Englishman said. I thought we would be reasonably competitive and at least get into Q3 but that's not the case. I haven't changed that much but struggled with the balance. Maldonado was quickest in Q2 and ended up on the front row for the first time in his career, far outqualifying teammate Bruno Senna who will start 18th. "We have been working so hard trying to understand these tires and to develop our car around these tires," the Venezuelan said. We did a very good step forward for this race. Hamilton will attempt to become the fifth different winner in the first five races, but tire strategy is likely to be the decisive factor. Pirelli's tires have been under scrutiny all week, with former world champions Schumacher and Jackie Stewart saying they are dangerous. However, Pirelli claim they have only followed orders to help improve racing and make Formula One less predictable, and Vettel is among those to support the Italian company's efforts. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes they could be in good shape for Sunday's race, despite a less than spectacular qualifying session. "Going into the race with four new sets of tires is an advantage," Horner said. Mark (Webber) has four sets of new tires and Seb has used one more set effectively so F1 is a strategic game.