Massa steals the Pole for Ferrari

It all came down to the final run in the final session and Felipe Massa was the one to put it all together at the right time as he claimed Pole Position for the Spanish Grand Prix in his Ferrari in a session that saw the fastest four covered by less than four-tenths of a second.

All eyes were on Fernando Alonso as Massa moved fastest, but despite his best efforts, the McLaren Mercedes driver did not quite have the pace to steal back the top spot and will start his home race on the front row alongside Massa. Kimi Raikkonen lines up third in the second Ferrari ahead of Lewis Hamilton and it is clear that once again the battle for supremacy tomorrow afternoon will again be between Ferrari and McLaren Mercedes.

Robert Kubica did a great job in his BMW Sauber and starts the race from fifth position. The BMW Sauber team took the unusual option of running the first two stints in the final session on the harder tyre, but on the softer option, Kubica got the job done on his third run. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld will be a little disappointed to start seventh in his F1.07.

Jarno Trulli qualified his Toyota in a superb sixth position. The Italian’s qualifying effort was in marked contrast to team-mate Ralf Schumacher who had another poor run and starts back in 17th position after being eliminated ahead of the second qualifying session.

Renault will be relatively content to have both Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella in the top ten. On this occasion Kovalainen got the jump and starts eighth while Fisichella recovered from some electrical gremlins to qualify tenth.

David Coulthard made it into the final qualifying session for the first time this year in his Red Bull Renault. While Mark Webber suffered hydraulic problems on his RB3, Coulthard qualified a solid ninth fastest.

Williams knew this would be a tough race after missing much of the pre-event testing but will be disappointed to see Nico Rosberg 11th after showing such good form in practice. Alex Wurz has had a rotten weekend and once again failed to shine in qualifying with the 18th fastest time.

Honda will be relatively happy with their qualifying performance as Rubens Barrichello qualified in 12th with team-mate Jenson Button in 14th. The team perhaps gained by some misfortune from its rivals, but at least they both made it through the first qualifying session.

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