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Hamilton goes fastest with a 1:39.199 but Raikkonen and Massa still to finish their laps!

Massa takes pole with a 1:39.989!

Hamilton in second, Kubica in 3rd, Raikkonen 4th and Kovalainen in 5th

Trulli 7th, Heidfeld 8th, Rosberg 9th and Bourdais 10th

Team by team summary following qualifying at Valencia (GMM)

FERRARI

His Budapest engine glitch aside, Felipe Massa is riding the crest of form as he took pole at Valencia from championship leader Lewis Hamilton -- who admitted the Brazilian "destroyed" all comers in the first sector of the lap. Kimi Raikkonen's recent struggle continues in Spain, with poor practice and early qualifying pace, and an ultimate Q3 lap half a second off Massa's pole. "Fourth place is not what I was looking for," the Finn confirmed.


MCLAREN-MERCEDES

McLaren's has not looked the quickest car all weekend at Valencia so far, and Hamilton indeed failed to match Massa's pace throughout the three qualifying segments. A couple of tenths off the Briton's pace is the occupant of the sister MP4-23, Heikki Kovalainen, so his much slower run in Q3 suggests McLaren is covering the bases by filling the Finn's car with more fuel. "Our strategy should help us to gain positions during the race," said Kovalainen, fifth.


BMW-SAUBER

Following the Budapest slump, Robert Kubica resurrected BMW-Sauber's fortunes on Saturday by going quickest in morning practice and then qualifying a highly-competitive third. "There is still a small gap to Ferrari and McLaren," said the Pole, even though his qualifying was clearly and consistently ahead of one rival from each of the two top teams mentioned. Teammate Nick Heidfeld was quicker than Kubica in Q2, before slumping to just P8 in Q3, indicating a likely heavier fuel load. He was also scathing of Timo Glock and Toyota, but - despite a stewards investigation - his countryman escaped penalty for a blocking incident in Q1. "Our team informs us on the radio how many seconds behind us a fast car is, and when we have to let somebody overtake. Apparently this isn't the case in every team," said Heidfeld, who had displayed his middle-finger to Glock on track.


TORO ROSSO-FERRARI

Without any doubt, Valencia is proving the highlight of Toro Rosso's F1 career so far, and Sebastian Vettel has been outstanding; P1 on Friday morning, the fastest man of all in the low-fuel initial qualifying phases, and ultimately an excellent P6 on the grid. "We didn't expect to do this well here," beamed the German, who finally beats his previous best qualifying effort of seventh, when he made his debut in Kubica's BMW-Sauber shoes at Indy last year. Teammate Sebastien Bourdais' P10, his first taste of Q3, completes STR's best qualifying achievement since the team's debut in 2006.



TOYOTA

After a difficult Friday, Saturday was a fascinating day for Jarno Trulli, who sat out the entire morning with a problem. Qualifying, therefore, was his first chance to try an all-new car setup -- and it worked to perfection. Along with Vettel, the Italian was the star of qualifying, showing incredible pace in Q1 and Q2 and ultimately securing P7. Timo Glock, suffering with a cold this weekend, lines up P13.



WILLIAMS-TOYOTA

The FW30s had a mighty morning with the second and fourth fastest times, but Kazuki Nakajima couldn't make the Q3 cut, even though P11 is a personal best for the Japanese. Nico Rosberg did get through Q2, however, and he lines up P9 on the grid. "It's been a few races since we managed to get into the top ten, so this is a good result for us," he said.



RENAULT

Disappointed home hero Fernando Alonso looked good on Friday but he didn't feature strongly on day two at Valencia, as both he and teammate Nelson Piquet failed to make the Q3 cut.


RED BULL-RENAULT

Behind both of the so-called 'junior' Toro Rosso cars, which are propelled by more powerful Ferrari engines, Mark Webber and David Coulthard are very much amid the bottom half of the grid. "We don't seem to have the pace we had a few races ago, which is quite frustrating," said Webber.



HONDA

Rubens Barrichello is having a shocker; disastrously slow in every session, and only saved the ignominy of being dead last on the grid by Force India's Adrian Sutil. Jenson Button also dropped out with the Q1 stragglers, but he was at least a full second faster than his teammate. "We simply chose the wrong tyre for my final run," said the Briton, who had looked quick on Friday.



FORCE INDIA-FERRARI

Giancarlo Fisichella easily outqualified the struggling Barrichello, but Sutil did not, and the German is last. Force India, however - running the new seamless shift gearbox at Valencia - celebrated the fact that the Fisichella's deficit to the fastest qualifying lap time was only 1.3sec.

Trust me not to have picked Massa this time.
Not too sure of your headline and Massa getting pole though......

News - August, 2008
Massa 'destroyed' rivals in quail - Hamilton F1 Merchandise

Poor quail...... guess he should not have been on the track

Formation lap for the European Grand Prix in a few minutes

Track temperature is at 44 degrees while air temperature is at 29 degrees.

It is hot out there!

Massa starts from Pole with Hamilton alongside him
Kubica starts from 3rd with Raikkonen alongside him
Kovalainen starts from 5th with Vettel alongside him

Barrichello and Sutil start from the pitlane

Formation lap uderway!

It seems that Rosberg is the only driver to start on the softer compound

The leading cars reach the starting grid

Race start!

Massa leads with Hamilton in second and Kubica in 3rd

Alonso in trouble!

Nakajima pits with a lost front wing and Alonso pits with a lost rear wing!

Nakajima drove into the back of Alonso!

Massa leads Hamilton by 1.4 seconds at the end of the second lap.

Alonso is staying in the car waiting for a new rear wing!

Order on lap 3: Massa, Hamilton, Kubica, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Vettel, Trulli and Rosberg

Alonso gets out of the car. Looks like the damage is more than just the rear wing