Button pushes Honda to Australian pole

MELBOURNE, Apr 1 (Reuters) Britain's Jenson Button survived a ''manic'' final qualifying session today to snatch pole position for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.

Button managed to safely avoid the chaos of several accidents, traffic jams and foul weather to lap Melbourne's Albert Park circuit in one minute, 25.229 seconds to capture his third career pole and Honda's first in 38 years.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, last year's winner, clocked the second best time to join Button on the front row of the grid, just ahead of his Renault team mate, Spanish world champion Fernando Alonso.

Kimi Raikkonen and his McLaren team mate Juan Pablo Montoya were fourth and fifth while seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher had to settle for 11th in his under-performing Ferrari.

''I'm still shaking with the excitement,'' Button told a news conference.

''It was a very hectic session, it was mad for us. Trying to get a lap time in was very difficult but we managed it.'' Button timed his run to perfection, rocketing to the top of the timesheets when he finally found a clear road in front of him to complete his flying lap with just minutes to go in the last session.

It gave him his third pole position after twice securing pole for BAR in 2004 and 2005 as well as Honda's first as a wholly-owned outfit since John Surtees started at the front at the 1968 Italian Grand Prix.

''We are absolutely delighted,'' Honda sporting director Gil De Ferran said. ''Obviously this is the best possible position to be in going into the race but let's see what tomorrow brings.'' LIGHT RAIN The first two qualifying sessions, in which the slowest 12 cars were eliminated, were both interrupted by accidents while the remaining 10 drivers were forced to take it easy at the start of the last session when light rain began to fall.

The first session was stopped when Yuji Ide of Japan spun his Super Aguri and stalled on the track. Ide was one of six drivers eliminated from the first session, including Button's Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello. Both Ferrari's were eliminated in the second session, which was also halted when Brazilian Felipe Massa lost control of the famous scarlet car and slammed into a wall, ripping one of the rear wheels off.

German Schumacher started from pole in the season-opening race in Bahrain but failed to even make the top-10 shootout in Melbourne after running over his own cooling fan when he left the team garage.

''I can't really explain our performance,'' Schumacher said.

''We were just too slow.'' Alonso won in Bahrain after qualifying fourth fastest and said he was confident of another strong showing after booking a place on the second row of the grid.

''This is my best qualifying for the year so I'm happy with that,'' he said.

''I lost about half a second when I got caught in traffic so considering that it was very good. In race conditions, I am confident we will be extremely competitive.'' FRONT ROW Fisichella was also in a buoyant mood after following up his victory in Malaysia last month to join Button on the front row.

''I'm very pleased to be second for the race considering I made a few mistakes on my quickest lap,'' he said.

''If we get a good start then I think we can be very strong tomorrow.'' Montoya said he only had himself to blame for missing his chance to grab pole position. The Colombian qualified fifth but spun out of control when he was on his quickest lap.

''I'm quite disappointed as I think we could have been on the front row if I hadn't messed it up,'' he said.

''I came into turn five a bit too aggressively, hit the kerb and lost it and that was it.'' Although all 22 cars were ranked in order after Saturday's three-stage qualifying session, the final grid positions won't be determined until a few hours before Sunday's race as teams can elect to drop back 10 places if they want to change engines.

REUTERS