Felipe Massa gave his home fans exactly what they wanted this afternoon and they roared their approval, drowning out the noise of the F1 engines, as the Paulista secured his third consecutive pole position at the track where he first began racing in go-karts when he was a small boy. It was a bravura performance at just the right moment, going into the most important race of the season. At the wheel of the second F2008, Kimi Raikkonen set the third fastest time, hampered by a bit of understeer, to line up behind his team-mate, who shares the front row with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. But as Kimi pointed out after the session, on this track, starting on the "pole" side is a definite advantage and therefore better than starting from second spot.

Alongside Kimi, we find Felipe's only rival for the title, Lewis Hamilton who took fourth spot in his McLaren-Mercedes. Row 3 sees Heikki Kovalainen in fifth place for McLaren, with the Renault of Fernando Alonso on his outside. On hand to congratulate the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers, after successfully negotiating the first key step of the weekend, was Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of the FIAT Group, who is attending this race in the company of senior management from Fiat Brazil.

First and third is a good start, but Interlagos can be a treacherous venue: it is a fantastic circuit with so many challenges, its fast corners, it's changes of gradient, a dramatic first corner corkscrew that dives down the hill past the pit lane exit and the fact it is a short lap, so that backmarkers can become a problem much earlier in the race than usual. However, tomorrow the most difficult factor to deal with could be the weather: after today's warm and dry conditions, hotter weather will bring with it a strong chance of heavy rain storms in the afternoon. In the past, a wet Interlagos has produced some completely unbelievable scenarios and despite the best efforts of the team strategists, accidents and Safety Car periods are hard to plan for. Whatever the conditions, it seems that the 2008 Formula 1 season will come to a thrilling finale tomorrow.

Eighth pole position of the season for Scuderia Ferrari, the sixth courtesy of Felipe Massa. For the third year in a row, the Brazilian will start his home race from the top slot, bringing his career total to fifteen poles. For Ferrari, this is pole number 203, the seventh in the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Scuderia's qualifying result is rounded off with a third place for Kimi Raikkonen. "This is definitely a great result, which puts us in a good position for tomorrow's race," commented Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal of the Gestione Sportiva. "However, we are well aware it's the race that counts and so there is still a long way to go. I am very happy for Felipe, who put in very strong qualifying performance. This result, along with the incredible enthusiasm of the Brazilian crowd will give him even more motivation for tomorrow, if indeed any more is needed. It will be a tough race with a further unknown hanging on the weather. Our aim is very simple: get both our cars ahead of the rest and then do the maths in both championships. It will be very tough, but we will give it our best shot."

Felipe Massa: "It's fantastic to have taken a third consecutive pole on this track and it's an incredible emotion to see everyone celebrating in the grandstands. I got a great lap on my first run in Q3 and I could have even not bothered to finish the second one, but you never know what might happen: I was the first to take the chequered flag and I would have looked stupid if someone had improved on my time. Anyway, I know I can count on a good strategy for tomorrow. The car is working very well and now I'm in the best possible position for the start. I will try and win: that is my aim. I'm not thinking about the rest, because it doesn't just depend on me or even on the team. I feel calm: there is so much expectation around me, but all this attention gives me a very positive energy which I will try and exploit tomorrow."

Kimi Raikkonen: "It wasn't a perfect qualifying but I am satisfied with my grid position, which puts me in a good position for the race. Starting from third is better than being second on this track. I am very confident for the race: we have a great car and the understeer that I suffered with today in Q3 should not be a problem tomorrow. We are well aware of what we have to do so that the team can reach its goals. We will try and get away in the lead and then run our race, as we did in 2007 and then we'll see where we are. Of course, we will need a bit of luck. The tyres are on the limit here in Interlagos and it will be important to manage them well: from this aspect we are in good shape."

Luca Baldisserri: "A great qualifying with a fantastic performance from Felipe. We have taken a step in the right direction but the most important part of the job comes tomorrow and we know how this track can produce a difficult and incident packed race. On top of that, there's the threat of a sudden worsening of the weather, which would introduce another variable in terms of managing such a crucial race. Today, the F2008 showed itself to be very competitive, even in decidedly higher temperatures compared to yesterday's free practice."

Qualifying session

F. Massa: 1st 1.12.368 6 laps chassis 269
K. Raikkonen: 3rd 1.12.825 6 laps chassis 271
Weather: air temperature 24/25 °C, track temperature 36 °C, sunny.