Massa sees them all off at 'his' track.

'I own this track', Felipe Massa had vowed on Friday in Turkey, and the Brazilian would prove as good as his word in qualifying around the challenging Istanbul Park circuit, by storming to his second pole position of the 2008 campaign ahead of an impressive Heikki Kovalainen.

Indeed, McLaren-Mercedes' resurgence seemed to continue apace this weekend, with Lewis Hamilton lining up just behind his team-mate in third, defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen just fourth and the BMW-Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld a relatively low-key fifth and ninth respectively.

With one big name certain to face the chop at the end of Q1 following Super Aguri's demise, the qualifying session across the Bosphorus promised to be a high-pressure affair indeed. Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella was the first man to take to the track on the harder of Bridgestone's two specifications of tyre, though with the Italian having to take a three-place grid penalty for crossing through a red light at the end of the pit lane during Friday practice, barring some kind of mega effort his battle to escape the drop zone looked to be more of a forlorn conclusion than ever.

Timo Glock, Sebastian Vettel, Kazuki Nakajima and Fisichella's team-mate Adrian Sutil were the next drivers to put in an appearance, with the German Toyota ace completing two laps on his first run, and to good effect with a strong opening lap.

The big guns were not long to show their hands, with Finns Kovalainen and Raikkonen followed onto the circuit by Hamilton. The trio immediately leapt to the top of the timing screens, the Briton half a second clear of his team-mate, himself three hundredths of a second ahead of his countryman with Massa just fourth.

Nakajima had a spin that compromised his efforts, whilst David Coulthard vaulted up to place best-of-the-rest in fifth with nine minutes of the session remaining. At this point the two BMWs - who had kept their powder dry throughout the weekend - had yet to put in an appearance, whilst Mark Webber, on the harder tyre to Red Bull Racing team-mate Coulthard's soft rubber, was just two tenths of a second in arrears of the Scot in sixth.

In trouble at this stage was Rubens Barrichello - marking his record-breaking 257th start in Istanbul this weekend - down in 18th spot, whilst Heidfeld and Kubica's first efforts placed them seventh and tenth respectively, the former celebrating his 31st birthday today.

With just a handful of minutes remaining, Renault's Nelsinho Piquet, STR rookie S?bastien Bourdais, Barrichello, Sutil and Fisichella were the men in the danger zone, with Williams duo Nico Rosberg and Nakajima on the cusp. Kubica, meanwhile, moved up to fifth to guarantee his place in Q2.

Perhaps tellingly, unlike the two McLaren-Mercedes', second-placed Raikkonen and third-placed Massa felt the need to venture out again in the closing moments, whilst Jenson Button - twelfth and barely a second away from the chop - played chicken by leaving the pit-lane on the harder tyres for his final run. There was better news, however, for fellow Brits Hamilton and Coulthard, fastest respectively in the first and second sectors (Hamilton) and final split (DC).

A late improvement from Fisichella pushed Barrichello down to 19th, with Rosberg moving up three places from 14th to eleventh and Barrichello subsequently safely making it through in twelfth. Button's final lap was no quicker, but at least maintained the Briton's 14th spot and position in Q2, whilst those to miss the cut were Nakajima, Piquet - who went off at turn ten on his last-ditch attempt - Bourdais, Fisichella and Sutil, with the latter pair set to swap places as a result of the Roman's penalty.

Massa - the only driver to dip below the 1m26s barrier with a dazzling late effort - Hamilton, Raikkonen, Glock, Jarno Trulli and Kovalainen completed the top ten at the end of Q1.

Coulthard was the first man out on-track in Q2, with just under eleven minutes remaining, with Fernando Alonso and Vettel following. Alonso was four tenths faster than similarly Renault-powered Coulthard after the first runs, with Webber, Trulli and Glock also popping up to demote the Scot in short order.

Raikkonen then went comfortably fastest on the soft tyre - matching team-mate Massa's time from Q1 - with Rosberg slotting into sixth just behind Coulthard at the end of his first lap. Massa's opening salvo was more than a tenth adrift of that of Raikkonen, with Hamilton a further three tenths slower still and Kovalainen only fifth, behind McLaren predecessor Alonso, again showing fine form for the resurgent R?gie.

Raikkonen then took a very wide line around the already wide track, with Barrichello in tenth four tenths faster than Button, the British star joining Rosberg, Vettel, Glock and Kubica in the drop area with just under five minutes to go. Kubica rapidly hoisted himself up into fourth - pushing Barrichello into the danger zone and leaving BMW team-mate Heidfeld right on the edge of the top ten.

On his final effort, Kovalainen went quickest of all in sector one, before getting out of shape through turn nine and losing speed down the following straight, ultimately winding up third, 0.26s adrift of Raikkonen, albeit in front of team-mate Hamilton.

Vettel moved up to eleventh - agonisingly just outside the top ten - but Red Bull stablemate Coulthard vaulted up to sixth, half a second inside the safety zone. Webber then demoted the Scot by placing fifth, with Kubica charging up to a superb second and Heidfeld just scraping through in tenth, a fraction ahead of Trulli, the final man to make it into Q3.

Those to miss out this time were Rosberg, the Hondas of Barrichello and Button, Vettel and Glock - the latter almost a full second adrift of Toyota team-mate Trulli - with Raikkonen outpacing Kubica, Massa, Kovalainen, Webber and Hamilton up at the sharp end of proceedings and both RBRs making it through to the final top ten shoot-out for the first time in 2008. Less than six hundredths of a second blanketed Webber back to Alonso in fifth to eighth.

Heidfeld - whose driving style seemed not to be getting his tyres warmed up as effectively as the more aggressive manner behind the wheel of team-mate Kubica - was the first man out in Q3, but the German was back in again at the end of the lap as his Turkish weekend continued to be far from delightful. He returned to the track again straight afterwards, in company with Trulli, and with seven minutes to go the action was underway.

As the times tumbled, Raikkonen, Kubica, Kovalainen and Alonso all put in strong laps as Hamilton got sideways at 150mph on his effort and subsequently went out on hard tyres for his final run, in contrast to Kovalainen's softer rubber. Massa, however, had by this point blown them all out of the water with a lap six tenths faster than even world championship leading team-mate Raikkonen, with the McLarens back in fifth and sixth - as in Barcelona, behind Kubica and Alonso once more.

A strong middle sector from Hamilton kept him in the mix, and a superb final sector vaulted him up into second place behind only Massa. Kovalainen then went quickest of all in the middle split, and nicked pole by just shy of a tenth of a second. Massa claimed it back again - though less than two tenths ahead - with Kubica slotting into fourth and Raikkonen really struggling, succeeding only in displacing the Pole to end up P4.

That left Massa on pole as the Ferrari star seeks to make it three in a row in Istanbul, from Kovalainen - the young Finn achieving his maiden front row start in the top flight two weeks on from his horrifying Barcelona shunt - Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica and Webber an impressive sixth. Alonso, Trulli, a disappointed Heidfeld and Coulthard rounded out the top ten.