Felipe Massa’s love affair with the Istanbul Speed Park circuit continued yesterday when he qualified in pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix for the third successive year.

In each of the past two years Massa has gone on to win and was never headed in either race. In fact all three Turkish Grands Prix have been won by the driver starting on pole – Kimi Raikkonen took the first race in 2005 – and Ferrari’s consistently impressive race pace this season means that the young Brazilian will start a strong favourite to make it a hat-trick. However, McLaren drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, who split Massa from his teammate, Raikkonen, on the grid by qualifying second- and third-fastest respectively, believe that they can put him under pressure, especially at the start.

From that point of view, it may be particularly disappointing that Hamilton is not on the front row. The young Briton arguably has only himself to blame after choosing to make his two final flying laps on the harder of his two choices of tyre. Massa and Kovalainen went for the softer option, on which most drivers were a couple of tenths of a second faster.

Afterwards, Hamilton admitted that he had probably made the wrong decision. Even so, he produced a superb, battling final effort to lift himself from sixth (which would have almost certainly ruled him out of contention) on to the second row.

“Lewis felt the option was going off a bit towards the end of the lap, and he opted for a better balance,” explained McLaren team principal Ron Dennis. “It’s easy to be wise with the benefit of hindsight, but that’s what he wanted, so that what’s we let him do.”

“It was a tough qualifying session for me,” acknowledged Hamilton. “I had a great Q1 [first qualifying session] but in Q2 I struggled a little bit on the option tyre, therefore I opted for the prime on the basis it had felt a bit more consistent towards the end of the lap.

“My final lap wasn’t too bad – for sure it was an improvement on the one before – but it wasn’t quick enough. But we have a good package for this weekend, Heikki and I have shown that we are up there with the Ferraris, and we should be able to push them hard in the race.”

Massa will take some catching, though, on a circuit that he clearly enjoys. After struggling in the early races of the season, he has found form. His confidence on the track was evident in his brilliant, flowing final lap. “It’s a fantastic track for me. I get a lot of pleasure from driving on a track like this,” he said, “Turn eight, in particular, which is very challenging – so many drivers fighting oversteer as they try to get the maximum from the car. I’m definitely looking forward to the race, though our competitors will be strong.”

For Kovalainen, starting from the front row was the best possible way of showing he had fully recovered from his high-speed accident during the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago. “I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t feel 100%, though I must say that for the first few corners of first practice on Friday I was feeling my way a little bit,” said the Finn. “After that I felt fine and I just tried to attack the maximum I can.”

Alongside Robert Kubica’s BMW on the third row will be the Red Bull of Mark Webber. He and teammate David Coulthard, who qualified 10th, look in good shape to pick up points.

The midfield battle will again be tight, with Fernando Alonso of Renault and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli making it into final qualifying.

With the air and, consequently, track temperatures much lower than expected, the biggest problem faced by the drivers was the time it took to get heat into their tyres, and a gusting wind asked further questions. Nelson Piquet Jr and Kazuki Nakajima, the two youngsters at Renault and Williams, failed to make it past first qualifying. There was disappointment too for Honda, with Jenson Button and Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello failing to make it beyond Q2.

Barrichello, all being well, will break the record for grand prix starts today. His first race was at Kyalami, South Africa, for Jordan in 1993; Turkey 2008 will be his 257th race. The biggest thing he learnt during his early races, he reckons, was how to develop his boy’s speed into man’s speed, something that Massa - who looks up to Barrichello in much the same way as Barrichello looked up to Ayrton Senna - looks to have achieved already.

“I was 20 and everything seemed to come naturally,” recalled Barrichello, with a smile. Massa is 27 - although he looks like a teenager - and after mistakes that led to retirements in Australia and Malaysia, was considered to be in danger of losing his drive. A win in Bahrain, followed by a second in Barcelona, confirmed him to be very much back on track, and it will be a surprise if he does not record the seventh win of his career later today.

TV coverage Turkish Grand Prix

Today, ITV1, 12.10pm; highlights, 11.50pm

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