Massa fights to be F1 No 1

2008-08-24 09:49

Valencia - By nabbing the pole for the European Grand Prix, Felipe Massa was in prime position to make another challenge for the No 1 position in the Formula One championship standings.

Massa timed a fastest lap of 1 minute, 38.989 seconds in his Ferrari on the 5.4km new Valencia street circuit, edging past series leader Lewis Hamilton of McLaren who was in second place with 1:39.199.

Going into Sunday's race, Hamilton narrowly leads the drivers' table with 62 points, five ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and eight in front of Massa.

In the last grand prix in Hungary three weeks ago, Massa looked all set to jump over Hamilton in the standings with a fourth season triumph, but his engine gave out three laps from the chequered flag.

Fourth pole this year

Massa said: "To start from the pole here for the first time, for sure, is very nice.

""The track here is not very easy, especially the surface (which) is a little bit slippery, so to make the perfect lap is always difficult.

"For sure we have a great car. We showed that at some races this year.

"We showed that at the last race, unfortunately some things happen," the Brazilian said.

The pole was Massa's fourth this year after Malaysia, Turkey and Monaco. He won at Bahrain, Turkey and France.

'Locked the wheels'

BMW's Robert Kubica was third in 1:39.392, while defending world champion Raikkonen was fourth with 1:39.488.

"Fourth place is not what I was looking for but it's definitely not the end of the world," said the Finn.

"I could have been higher up the grid but on my last run in the Q3 (third and final qualifying round) I locked the wheels at a few points and lost valuable time.

"It was nothing dramatic, but at this circuit a small error is very costly. I still think I can be in the fight for a win," Raikkonen said.

Hamilton, meanwhile, said he was satisfied.

Unsettled weather

"It's a good starting position for us tomorrow (on Sunday)," Hamilton said.

"(Felipe's) going to be hard to beat, but we'll certainly push for it."

Home favourite and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was eliminated after the second session, as was teammate Nelson Piquet Jnr.

The forecast for Sunday's race is for very unsettled weather.

Valencia is the 12th of the season's 18 GPs.

- AP