Today in Istanbul, Ferrari scored its 184th pole position; a worthy achievement of course, but nothing really very unusual. However, it is a different story for Felipe Massa as the young Brazilian recorded his first ever pole at his 67th attempt. Afterwards, an emotional Felipe thanked the team, but also his father, who supported his career in its early days.

While there are still 309.356 kilometres of racing to go before tomorrow afternoon's chequered flag, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has put itself in the best possible shape at this critical point in the season, as it is an all-red front row, with Michael Schumacher lining up alongside his team-mate. However, the battle in both championships could not be closer as the red at the front is matched by an all-blue second row for Renault with Fernando Alonso in third ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella. There are a total of three Germans in the top six on the grid, as apart from Michael, his brother Ralf is fifth for Toyota ahead of the BMW-Sauber of Nick Heidfeld.

Massa put in a faultless performance from start to finish, while Schumacher uncharacteristically made a couple of driving errors. However, with the final Q3 section of the session being run on a heavier fuel lad, it was Michael who had the honour of setting the actual quickest time of the afternoon during the Q2 part of proceedings.

It was the fifth pole position of the season for Scuderia Ferrari, after those in Sakhir, Imola, Indianapolis and Magny-Cours; the first for Felipe Massa who will thus start a grand prix from the very top of the grid for the first time in his career. For the fourth time this season two Ferraris will start from the front row. This is Ferrari's 184th pole, the first at this track.

Jean Todt: "A great qualifying for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro who will occupy the whole front row of the grid tomorrow afternoon. I am very happy for Felipe for his first ever pole position. Our package, with the support of exceptional partners like Bridgestone and Shell once again showed itself to be very competitive today. Taking into account the consistency of the performance of the tyres in race trim, there is every indication we can do well tomorrow.
 

"As usual, to have a clear picture of the situation we need to clear up the usual unknowns of strategy and how the tyres will react as the track gets more and more rubber down, without forgetting crucial factors like reliability. The answers to these questions will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon."

Felipe Massa: "A fantastic day for me and to get my first F1 pole is an emotional moment. I can look back and think how much I have had to fight to achieve this. I am emotional and happy and hope to get many more poles in my career. I want to thank the team for having given me a fantastic car, but thank you also to my father: without him I would probably not be here in Formula 1. Tomorrow I will drive my race thinking about mine and the team's objectives in both championships. We know we have a great package while the Bridgestone tyres are consistent and perform well over a long run."

Michael Schumacher: "Getting myself on the front row is definitely not something I can complain about, but today I definitely did not deliver a great qualifying performance, failing to get all the potential out of the car. I aborted my first run on new tyres in Q3 after I ran wide at Turn 1 and I also made a mistake on my second run when in any case, I took a slightly more cautious approach to the lap, knowing I only had one set of tyres left and that it would be better to be second or third rather than not managing to do a reasonable time. It's better to be safe than sorry. I am very happy for Felipe on getting the first pole of his career. He drove an exceptional lap and I have to say I don't think I could have beaten him, even if I had not made any mistakes. We can be optimistic about the race as, from what we have seen so far, everything is in place for us to do well."

Ross Brawn: "Naturally I am very happy with this result. The 248 F1 ran very well, thanks also to the support of our partners, first and foremost Bridgestone and Shell. The tyres have proved very consistent over a long run and that will be an important factor tomorrow. Felipe did a fantastic job: first he managed to do a great time on his first run and then he managed to improve on his second one. As for Michael, he made a mistake on his first lap with new tyres in Q3 and then tackled the second attempt with a bit of caution, but still managed to take second place. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the race, but we know we still have a very difficult task ahead of us."

Qualifying session: Felipe Massa: 1st 1.26.907 11 laps chassis 252; Michael Schumacher: 2nd 1.27.284 11 laps chassis 255; Temperature: air 33/32 °C track 45/46 °C