Ferrari 1-4 for qualifying....McClaren 2-3

Felipe Massa put his Ferrari on pole for the Turkish Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon, for the third consecutive time in Istanbul Park. But the two McLarens of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton lined up second and third and they will be doing their best to frustrate the Brazilian’s aspirations for his hat-trick of victories here on Sunday.

Massa set the pace when Q3 began, with a lap of 1m 27.896s, but it was a good job that he was able to improve that to 1m 27.617s as Kovalainen punched in a 1m 27.808s on his second run. The Finn showed absolutely no ill effects after his nasty shunt in the recent Spanish Grand Prix, and seemed very happy with his car

Hamilton had been very fast in Q1 until Massa beat him, but was unhappy with his McLaren’s ultimate performance on his second try in Q3. Where Kovalainen made the medium Bridgestone tyres work for him, Hamilton admitted that his choice of the harder tyre was not the answer.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari and it may be that he is running more fuel than Massa. The Finn lapped in 1m 27.936s, compared to Hamilton’s 1m 27.923s