Ferrari's Massa takes first pole in Turkey

Brazilian Felipe Massa took the first pole position of his Formula One career yesterday as Ferrari swept title rivals Renault off the front row at the Turkish Grand Prix.

Massa pipped team-mate and seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher by 0.377 seconds to secure the fourth all-Ferrari front row of the year.

Renault's overall leader Fernando Alonso will start right behind the Ferrari pair in third place, alongside Italian team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

The champion leads Schumacher by 10 points in the drivers' championship with five races remaining while Renault are just seven clear of Ferrari in a tight battle between the constructors.

"I think we did the maximum we can for today," said the Spaniard, who has seen Schumacher whittle his lead down from 25 points over the last four races but remained optimistic.

"I think the Ferrari and Bridgestone package was extremely quick for one timed lap.

"We believe more in our pace for the race."

Schumacher, who can expect Massa to let him through and then try to keep Alonso at bay given that the young Brazilian has no hope of the title, was less happy after twice running wide at the first turn.

"It didn't go exactly to plan," said the 37-year-old German.

"I had a good car and couldn't translate all the performance."

Ralf Schumacher, Michael's younger brother was fifth quickest for Toyota but loses 10 places due to an unscheduled engine change.

That left compatriot Nick Heidfeld, for BMW Sauber, and Honda's Jenson Button on the third row.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, last year's winner from pole position, starts seventh with Poland's Robert Kubic next to him in a BMW Sauber.

Raikkonen's Spanish team-mate Pedro de la Rosa, second in Hungary two weeks ago, failed to make the final cut and will start a disappointing 11th.

Meanwhile, Midland's Dutch driver Christijan Albers will lose 10 places on the starting grid after his car's Toyota engine failed in practice for the third race in a row.

"It's very difficult to explain how frustrated I feel right now," he said.

"This is the third time in a row that we've had a really bad Friday," he continued.

"Midland and Toyota have to push hard together as a team, to look at the data and analyse what is going on because in Formula One we can't afford to have these kinds of failures."

Engines must last for two successive races in Formula One and any unscheduled change brings the automatic 10-place penalty.

The failure meant Albers will start at the back of the grid today despite clocking the 16th best time in qualifying.

Albers has not qualified higher than 14th so far this season.