Formula One news

Massa steals pole in dying seconds

Felipe Massa stole pole position from Lewis Hamilton in the final moments of qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix by less than half a tenth of a second. In a thrilling climax to qualifying Kimi Raikkonen ended third ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Qualifying got underway in very hot and sunny conditions with air temperature 35 degrees Centigrade and the track 45 degrees. The heat wasn't on for very long for Liuzzi, Ralf Schumacher, Sato, Vettel, Sutil and Yamamoto as all six were knocked out in the first session.

The second session claimed the scalps of Davidson, Webber, Coulthard, Barrichello, Button and Wurz.

Massa set the early pace in the pole position shootout ahead of Raikkonen and Alonso, but there was still time for everyone to have one more flying lap. Pole switched between the leading drivers in the final moments but it was Massa who pulled it out of the bag taking pole from Lewis Hamilton by 0.044s.

Kimi Raikkonen made a mistake in the final sector of his flying lap and slipped to third while Fernando Alonso couldn't improve his time and ended up in fourth.

BMW lined up on row three with Kubica leading Heidfeld ahead of Heikki Kovalainen, Nico Rosberg, Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella rounding off the top ten.

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• 31 Dec. '08
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