Hamilton, who has 70 points, was taken by ambulance from the track but did not seem seriously hurt.

He waved and gave a thumbs-up sign as he was being taken on a stretcher into the ambulance. Officials said he was conscious and speaking on the way to the circuit's medical centre.

The Englishman hit the wall hard after he slid across the gravel next to the track when the right front wheel of his McLaren was damaged.

McLaren officials said Hamilton had nothing broken and would be kept under observation for several hours.

There was no immediate word if he would be fit to race today. If so, he will start from 10th position on the grid.

'It's far too early to say but, at the moment, he doesn't appear to have pain anywhere, no broken bones. We won't be able to decide until after a few hours' observation, but so far, so good,' team boss Ron Dennis told reporters.

Dennis said the crash was caused by the 'failure of the right-hand wheel gun, so, effectively, the wheel wasn't properly put on.'

The qualifying session was stopped and it took about 30 minutes for it to resume.

Raikkonen, coming off two consecutive F1 wins, drove the fastest lap on the 5.1-km Nuerburgring circuit in 1 minute 31.450 seconds.

Fernando Alonso, the two-time world champion who trails McLaren teammate Hamilton by 12 points, was second in qualifying. Felipe Massa of Ferrari was third.

Alonso clocked 1:31.741 and Massa 1:31.778.

The same gun was used on Alonso's car but he said he had not been worried.

AP

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