MONACO, May 24: Brazilian Felipe Massa seized pole position from Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday.

Massa, who had said before qualifying that he was no fan of the twisting street circuit, kept away from the unforgiving metal barriers as he blasted to his 12th Formula One pole position and third of the season.

He set his time of one minute 15.787 seconds with his last lap after world champion Raikkonen, a Monaco winner with McLaren in 2005, had moments earlier lapped in 1:15.815.

McLaren’s 23-year-old Briton Lewis Hamilton was third quickest on an all-McLaren second row with Finnish team mate Heikki Kovalainen.

Massa now has a real chance of becoming the first Brazilian since the late Ayrton Senna in 1993 to win the season’s showcase race.

It was Ferrari’s first pole in Monaco since Michael Schumacher in 2000 and Massa’s task now is to become the team’s first winner since the German’s victory in 2001 and also to end a 29-year jinx.

The last Ferrari driver to win in the Mediterranean principality from pole position was South African Jody Scheckter in 1979 and Sunday’s forecast is for rain, which could play havoc with the field.

The qualifying session, with grey skies threatening rain after showers overnight and in the morning, was a disappointment for Hamilton on a favourite track. He had set the fastest time in Thursday practice.

BMW Sauber’s Polish driver Robert Kubica shared the third row with Germany’s Nico Rosberg in a Williams while double world champion Fernando Alonso, winner for the past two years in Monaco, was seventh for Renault.

Toyota’s Italian Jarno Trulli, Monaco winner with Renault in 2004, qualified eighth.

Alonso’s struggling team mate, Brazilian rookie Nelson Piquet, did his cause no good with another disappointing performance in qualifying 17th.

Red Bull’s David Coulthard crashed heavily towards the end of the second qualifying session as he emerged from the tunnel, the fastest point of the twisting street circuit where cars reach around 280 kph.

The Scot, twice a Monaco winner with McLaren, hit the guardrail before skidding down an escape route after the harbour chicane with one of the car’s rear wheels breaking away and bouncing down the track in front of the moored yachts.

Coulthard, at 37 the oldest driver on the starting grid, escaped unhurt. Unable to take part in the final part of qualifying despite making the cut, he will start 10th and alongside Australian team-mate Mark Webber.

Starting grid:

1. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari; 2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari; 3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren; 4. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren; 5. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber; 6. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams–Toyota; 7. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault; 8. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota; 9. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull–Renault; 10. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull–Renault; 11. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota; 12. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda; 13. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber; 14. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams–Toyota; 15. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda; 16. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso–Ferrari; 17. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault; 18. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India–Ferrari; 19. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India–Ferrari; 20. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso–Ferrari.

—Reuters