In the qualifying session Felipe Massa registered a time of 1 minute 27.329 seconds for the 5.338-kilometre circuit.

The British driver of McLaren-Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, will start from the second place after he obtained a time of 1:27.373. The third place was claimed be the Finnisch Kimi Raikkonen, who was faster than the defending champion, Fernando Alonso.

“It was very tough,” said Massa. “You could see that every session of qualifying was very tight – it was always a big fight between all four [Ferrari and McLaren] drivers. On the last run I managed to put together a great lap”.”

“I’m very proud, especially after a very bad result in Hungary.  think we deserve it and I’m very proud about the lap, about the job the team did." The Brazilian driver also took pole last year at Istanbul Park.

Hamilton said he was pleased to start on the front row of the grid and expected to be competitive in Sunday's race.

"I lost a little bit of time coming out of the last turn," said Hamilton. "But it was good for me and good for the team to be in the top four."

Raikkonen said his failure to put in a perfect lap in the third qualifying session had cost him a higher starting place on the grid.

"I had a bid of oversteer in the last two corners but third is okay," he said. "I think we are still in with a good chance."

With just six races until the end of the season Hamilton is leading the drivers’ 80 points, after he won the last race in Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso is six points behind the British driver, while Raikkonen and Massa are separated only by a point (60, respectively 59)

The grid:

First row 1. Felipe Massa, Brazil, Ferrari 2. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren-Mercedes

Second row 3. Kimi Raikkonen, Finland, Ferrari 4. Fernando Alonso, Spain, McLaren-Mercedes

Third row 5. Robert Kubica, Poland, BMW-Sauber 6. Nick Heidfeld, Germany, BMW-Sauber

Fourth row 7. Heikki Kovalainen, Finland, Renault 8. Nico Rosberg, Germany, Williams

Fifth row 9. Jarno Trulli, Italy, Toyota 10. Giancarlo Fisichella, Italy, Renault

Sixth row 11. Mark Webber, Australia, Red Bull Racing 12. Anthony Davidson, Britain, Super Aguri

Seventh row 13. David Coulthard, Britain, Red Bull 14. Rubens Barrichello, Brazil

Eighth row 15. Jenson Button, Britain, Honda 16. Alexander Wurz, Austria, Williams

Ninth row 17. Ralf Schumacher, Germany, Toyota 18. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Italy, Toro Rosso

10th row 19. Takuma Sato, Japan, Super Aguri 20. Sebastian Vettel, Germany, Toro Rosso

11th row 21. Adrian Sutil, Germany, Spyker 22. Sakon Yamamoto, Japan, Spyker