Motorsports
Massa leads Ferrari front row
FELIPE Massa will head an all-Ferrari front row after the Brazilian took pole position for tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix.
Massa's time of one minute 35.748 seconds beat Kimi Raikkonen by almost half a second with Heikki Kovalainen out-pacing team-mate Lewis Hamilton to claim third for McLaren.
Hamilton will start the 56-lap race from fourth on the grid after his time of 1min 36.709secs trailed Massa by almost a full second.
"I was really pleased with the third qualifying, I did two great laps," said Massa. "I managed to put everything together and our championship is starting now."
Having been strong throughout free practice it was no surprise Ferrari occupied the first two slots on the grid with Massa starting from the front for the second consecutive year. But championship leader Hamilton will be disappointed with a performance that fell below his usual high standards.
With the threat of rain failing to materialise, Massa gained the upper hand first in Qualifying Three after edging out Raikkonen, with Kovalainen running third and Robert Kubica fourth in the BMW Sauber.
Raikkonen briefly then claimed pole with a lap of 1:36.230 before Massa smashed his team-mate's mark.
Hamilton lay fifth and was not helped by catching a Toyota going down the home straight as he began his final run. The Brit seemed to struggle with braking all the way through the qualifying session, locking his brakes on several occasions, and while he managed to edge out Kubica for fourth, it was not enough to threaten the Ferraris.
Kovalainen took third with a time of 1:36.613, nearly 0.4secs behind his compatriot Raikkonen but 0.1secs quicker than Hamilton.
Jarno Trulli will start an impressive fifth for Toyota, while Kubica took sixth for BMW Sauber with team-mate Heidfeld seventh.
Mark Webber qualified eighth for Red Bull, Fernando Alonso ninth in his Enstone-built Renault and Toyota's Timo Glock rounded out the top ten.
10:40am Saturday 22nd March 2008
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