Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has set pole position in Sepang for the Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix with a time of 1min 35.043secs. He will be joined on the front row tomorrow by McLaren Mercedes driver Fernando Alonso. Alonso was fastest in the first two qualifying sessions but Massa pipped him in the dying seconds of the final session to score his first pole in Malaysia and the fourth of his career.

Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) will start from third on the grid with McLaren Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton alongside. Hamilton set the fastest time in the morning free practice session with a time of 1min 34.811secs. Massa was second fastest with Alonso third.

Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations said: “As forecast yesterday, the Bridgestone medium compound dominated qualifying with only one car setting its fastest lap on the hard compound. It was an exciting and close fought battle for pole position and we had different cars top the order in the sessions today.

It was clear from the morning practice that the medium compound has an average advantage over the hard of half a second, but the story could be different tomorrow if the conditions get hotter and become more favourable for the hard tyre. We did see clouds today but these didn’t frighten me. Tomorrow will be an exciting race and certainly a tough one.”

Stats of the Day 
Total amount of laps completed by all drivers: 868 
Total amount of laps completed by all drivers: 646 laps
Average number of laps per car: 29 laps
Most laps by a driver: 42 – Ralf Schumacher
Fastest lap: 1m 34.057s – Alonso in Q2
Compounds: hard and medium 
Number of white paint pens used to mark tyre groove: 85

Malaysian Grand Prix in 2006 Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault)
won the Malaysian Grand Prix from pole position, only
relinquishing the lead during his two pit stops.
Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Jenson Button (Honda)
joined Fisichella on the podium.

Temperatures  Ambient  Track    Weather 
AM – Practice   33-34-32C 44-47-45C Sunny, Scattered cloud 
PM - Qualifying 34-35-34C 49-45C    Scattered cloud, cloud