Massa takes Valencia pole

Felipe Massa will start the first Grand Prix on the new Valencia street circuit from the front of the grid.

McLaren star to start from the front

Felipe Massa made history on Saturday when he became the very first F1 driver to take pole position at the new Valencia street circuit. The Brazilian, who posted the fastest time of the weekend during Q1, continued his good run of form when he clocked a 1:38.989 during Q3 to take pole position away from Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren driver posted a 1:39.199 to fall 0.210s short of Massa's time while Robert Kubica was third quickest for BMW. Kimi Raikkonen was the only other driver to get within half a second of Massa's P1 time while sixth place on the grid goes to Heikki Kovalainen.

Not easy

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." Looking to make amends for the blown engine which robbed him of the win in the Hungarian Grand Prix just three laps from home three weeks ago, Massa added: "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 as he said: "It was quite straightforward for me. "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." Kubica was certainly pleased to be back in the top three, with the Pole commenting: "It was a very good qualifying for myself and the team. "Qualifying went pretty smooth, although the weather was playing around a little bit, but there were only a few drops in Q2 which didn't have any effect." Times
01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:38.989
02 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:39.199
03 R. Kubica BMW 1:39.392
04 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:39.488
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:39.937
06 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.142
07 J. Trulli Toyota 1:40.309
08 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:40.631
09 N. Rosberg Williams 1:40.721
10 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.750
11 K. Nakajima Williams 1:38.428
12 F. Alonso Renault 1:38.435
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:38.499
14 M. Webber Red Bull 1:38.515
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:38.744
16 J. Button Honda 1:38.880
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:39.235
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:39.268
19 R. Barrichello Honda 1:39.811
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:39.943