Formula One:Ferrari's Felipe Massa claimed pole position for tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix after coming out on top in a thrilling three-way shootout in Sepang.
The Brazilian, who dominated Friday's practice runs, put his Australian qualifying disaster behind him when he edged out world champion Fernando Alonso and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen at the very end of the third and final qualifying session in posting a time of 1:35:043.
Britain's Lewis Hamilton will start fourth after recording his slowest time of the afternoon, finishing a full second behind pole-sitter Massa.
As the clock counted down to the end of Qualifying Three, Raikkonen was the first of the front runners to go out for his final run, but every sector time the Finn set on his way around the 3.444 mile circuit was immediately bettered by Alonso, who always had the Ferrari in his sights.
Raikkonen eventually crossed the line in 1:35:479 before his Spanish rival pipped him by 0.169 seconds with a time of 1:35:310.
However, Massa was following close behind and snatched pole position right at the death by 0.267 seconds from the McLaren, with Raikkonen eventually over four tenths of a second behind his Ferrari team-mate.
Hamilton had raised hopes he could claim a maiden pole position after topping the time sheets in the morning's final practice session and looked in for a strong afternoon as he finished Qualifying One second only to McLaren team-mate Alonso.
But, as the competition intensified, the 22-year-old could not respond and his time of 1:36:045 was over half a second slower than Raikkonen.
Nick Heidfeld demonstrated once again BMW-Sauber will be a force to be reckoned with after a strong run saw the German claim fifth, while Nico Rosberg ended an encouraging afternoon in sixth.
Robert Kubica in the sister BMW dropped to seventh after looking good in the first two sessions, while Toyota duo Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli enjoyed better fortune than in Australia three weeks ago, finishing eighth and ninth respectively. Mark Webber completed the top 10.
Jenson Button will start down in 15th after failing to make it into the final qualifying session, the Briton posting a slightly slower time in his Honda than in Qualifying One.
David Coulthard lines up in 13th after failing to extract any extra pace in his Red Bull, and will start alongside Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato.
Renault duo Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella, who looked set for a promising weekend after strong runs in yesterday's afternoon practice session, finished just outside their aim of a top 10 finish in 11th and 12th, respectively, the former scuppering his chances by putting two wheels on the grass during his final attempt.
Vitantonio Liuzzi starts in 16th for Toro Rosso.
Anthony Davidson could not repeat his qualifying heroics from Melbourne, with his Super Aguri eliminated in the opening qualifying stint.
After an encouraging morning practice session, the British driver will start 18th after posting a time of 1:36:816.
Rubens Barrichello will line up in 19th as his troublesome Honda predictably failed to make the cut, the Brazilian going out and coming in before finally posting a time of 1:36:827 with seconds remaining.
Toro Rosso driver Scott Speed, Williams' Alex Wurz and Spyker duo Christijan Albers and Adrian Sutil were also eliminated.
Massa was pleased to have banished the memories of his qualifying woes in Melbourne, when he started at the back of the grid after deciding to change his engine due to a gearbox problem in Qualifying Two.
"After what happened in the first race in Australia I'm pretty happy," the Brazilian said. "The whole weekend, the car had been responding well.
"I had a big fight with Fernando, who was also running strongly in the morning, so it was very difficult. But I'm very happy."
Alonso reasserted his own credentials after spending the week fending off questions about Ferrari's dominance.
"I'm happy with the set-up," the Spaniard said. "We had problems between third practice and qualifying, and last night, but everything seems to be working well.
"I'm very, very happy with the work the team has done and we're now a little bit closer to Ferrari."
Kimi Raikkonen was satisfied to be starting on the second row of the grid after revealing a cautious approach over his fragile Ferrari engine despite insisting yesterday it would not pose a problem.
"We needed to play on the safe side with the engine," said the Finn. "The car is better than yesterday but it is still proving a little bit difficult to drive.
"But I'm happy with third."