Massa shoots to pole at Valencia

F1 Grand Prix, GP Europe, Valencia Street Circuit

Felipe Massa has secured the first ever pole position at the Valencian urban circuit. Lewis Hamilton joins him on the first line, followed by Kubica and Raikkonen. Sebastian Vettel continuously performed well and will start from 6th on the grid.

On the new urban circuit of Valencia, almost all drivers run a very busy Q1 in order to get comfortable with the continuously changing track conditions. Early on the weekend, the track was reported as very dirty, resulting in laptimes almost 6 seconds slower than the teams had anticipated from their simulations.

In what is also a discovery session for most of the tv spectators, Hamilton takes the early lead with 4 minutes to go. Several drivers have been locking wheels on the harbour's bridge.

2 minutes before the sessions's closure, Massa tops Hamilton on the super soft tyres. Meanwhile Heidfeld is again in trouble and is angry at Glock for blocking him. One lap later he improves and qualifies for Q2.

At the end of the session, Trulli is fastest, ahead of Vettel, Massa and Alonso. At the back, Button, Coulthard, Barrichello and both Force India's are out.

Q2 proves to be very tense with Vettel masterfully in the lead. Both Renaults are however in the danger zone after their first attempts and aim to improve in their final laps at session's ending.

The final laps however hardly showed any improvement in laptimes. It knocks out Alonso and his teammate, along with the remaining Red Bull of Webber and Nakajima and Glock.

Jarno Trulli is the first out in Q3, quickly followed by Vettel. The Ferrari's quickly prove fastest as Massa tops Raikkonen. Kubica comes in third. Lewis Hamilton is fourth but made a mistake and is also on the super soft option tyre, contrary to both Ferrari drivers.

Lewis is the first to start his final attempt and improves on the provisional best. Raikkonen fails to improve but it is eventually Massa who again tops the McLaren. Kubica comes in third.