July 01, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1428

MAGNY-COURS (France), June 30: Brazilian Felipe Massa put Ferrari on pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday, with McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton right alongside.

“It's good to be back and fighting,” declared Massa, whose team have been outgunned by McLaren for the last three races.

Finland's Kimi Raikkonen will start Sunday's race in third place for Ferrari next to BMW Sauber's Polish driver Robert Kubica.

Hamilton's team mate and double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso, who is 10 points behind the 22-year-old British rookie after seven races, endured a nightmare day and qualified 10th.

Already sidelined for most of the day's final practice session due to a brake sensor problem, the Spaniard did not set a time in the final qualifying session after hitting further mechanical trouble.

“I don't really know what happened,” said Hamilton. “I was behind him and just saw a little bit of smoke at one of the corners.”

Alonso returned to the garage and sat in the car as mechanics worked around him in an ultimately futile race against time. With five minutes remaining, he stepped out and removed his helmet.

Massa's pole position, with a lap 0.070 seconds faster than Hamilton's best, was the Brazilian's fourth of the season and seventh of his career.

It also ended McLaren's run of three poles in a row and confirmed Ferrari's return to the front, with retired seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher in attendance at the circuit where he won for a record eighth time last year.

Hamilton, winner of the last two races from pole position, said he was confident there was still everything to play for.

“You can't be perfect all the time,” said the Briton. “I had the car to be on pole but I lost a bit of time on turn 15.

That's the way it goes.

“I believe we still have the pace of the Ferraris and we'll see what happens tomorrow.”

Kubica, making a strong return to action after missing the last US Grand Prix following his big accident in Canada, was ahead of Renault pairing Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen.

Starting grid: 1. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari; 2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren; 3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari; 4. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber; 5. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault; 6. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault; 7. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber; 8. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota; 9. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams-Toyota; 10. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren; 11. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota; 12. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda; 13. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda; 14. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull-Renault; 15. Scott Speed (US) Toro Rosso-Ferrari; 16. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull-Renault; 17. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso-Ferrari; 18. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams-Toyota; 19. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri-Honda; 20. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Spyker-Ferrari; 21. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker-Ferrari; 22. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri-Honda.—Reuters