Massa grabs pole, Hamilton second

F1 Grand Prix, GP Brazil, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos

Felipe Massa has gained pole position and in fact holds the cards for tomorrow's championship decider. Lewis Hamilton is in second place and therefore has most chances to secure his first World Championship. Kimi Raikkonen is third with Alonso a 'distant' fourth. The Spaniard never looked a pole candidate and will have to find more pace tomorrow.

The final qualifying session of the season is held at a resurfaced Interlagos circuit. Most renowned bumps have been flattened out which makes it considerably easier for the F1 drivers to control their machines. Just like in the morning practice, the weather is warm and the track dry.

The session is started with Spyker's Yamamoto but it is Sutil who marks the first "event" as he needs to park his car due to technical trouble. As he did not set any times, he is for sure out of the race for tomorrow's pole position. After the first series of fast laps, 5 minutes before closure, Alonso is surprisingly badly positioned and may have made a mistake in his first lap. In order to be certain he puts in another lap and thereby clocks the highest topspeed and the second fastest time in Q1.

Knocked out are Kovalainen, Sato, Williams' rookie Nakajima, Davidson and obviously both Spykers.

During Q2 things are again not going as wanted for Alonso as he looks unable to match the pace of the best. Raikkonen puts in the fastest time, slightly ahead of Hamilton and Massa. Similar to FP3, Alonso is a surprise 8 tenths behind. As he is 4th there is this time no real need to drive another lap.

In the usual last minute attempts, Coulthard, Webber and Rosberg managed to get through to Q3 while Barrichello, Fisichella, Vettel, Liuzzi, Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button fell short.

For that very pole deciding session, Hamilton is queing ahead of Alonso and the two Ferraris. After the first flying laps Massa is on top, ahead of Hamilton, Raikkonen, Webber and Alonso who is again lacking pace.
Ferrari kick off the second string of laps and Raikkonen is again slightly hampered in his lap by Hamilton who is on his out-lap. Raikkonen is unable to improve on Massa and provisionally puts himself in 2nd place. Hamilton is consequently charging ahead of Raikkonen while Alonso manages to get ahead of Webber and secure fourth place.