Massa celebrates pole
Felipe Massa will start from pole position around the new Valencia Street Circuit for the European Grand Prix.
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Massa took the honours with a lap of one minute 38.989 seconds to edge current championship leader Lewis Hamilton into second by 0.210secs, with BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica back on the pace with third.
For Brazilian Massa, eight points behind Hamilton in the drivers' standings, it was his fourth pole of the season for Ferrari, but first since Monaco at the end of May.
McLaren ace Hamilton is likely to be happy with second as he had appeared to struggle on occasions around the 5.440km track which runs through Valencia's marina and post.
As for Kubica, he has not started as high as third since victory in Canada in June when he started from the front row behind Hamilton.
Behind the leading trio came reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari - outqualified by Massa for the eighth time in 12 races - followed by fellow Finn Heikki Kovalainen in his McLaren.
Massa said: "You always want to be top, and to start from pole here for the first time is very nice.
"The track is not easy, it's slippery so a perfect lap is difficult, but I was able to score pole and we have a good car for the race and let's hope we can have a good one. We have a great car.
"As we've shown in so many races this year that is the case, and as we did in the last race - but sometimes things happen. It's always nice to be on top after such a result. We don't know how the race will be, but it's always nice to be on pole."
Hamilton appeared satisfied with being on the front row.
"It was quite straightforward for me,” he said. “We had a good car in practice. We came through Q1 and Q2, which is never a problem.
"I saved the option tyre for Q3, and although my first lap wasn't good, the second one was and we've managed to get a great position. But Felipe destroyed everyone in sector one (of the track), so he is going to be very hard to beat."
It proved a miserable qualifying session for Jenson Button and David Coulthard as the two Britons will start 16th and 17th in their Honda and Red Bull respectively.
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