Massa takes pole for Singapore GP ahead of Hamilton

Sep 27, 2008, 19:06 GMT

Singapore - Ferrari's Felipe Massa secured the 14th pole position of his career Saturday when he qualified in top spot ahead of championship leader Lewis Hamilton for Sunday's Singapore Formula One Grand Prix.

The 27-year-old Brazilian registered a time of 1 minute 44.801 seconds under floodlights for the 5.067-kilometre Marina Bay Street Circuit, a comfortable 0.664 seconds ahead of Hamilton in a McLaren- Mercedes.

Hamilton leads Massa by one point in the championship.

'The car was just perfect so nice to drive, then I managed to do a perfect lap' said Massa, who is just one point adrift of Hamilton with four races remaining.

Sunday's race will be the first F1 race in history to take place at night but Massa said he wasn't concerned, even though he described the circuit as 'pretty tough'.

'The lights? I don't think it's a big problem,' he said. 'You don't think about if it's night or day, you just think about what you have to do.'

Hamilton only just managed to qualify for the final session so will be glad to start on the front row of the grid ahead of defending champion Kimi Raikkonnen in the second Ferrari and Robert Kubica in a BMW-Sauber.

'Fortunately we got through and managed to secure a spot on the front row,' he said.

'I think they've done an amazing job in building the circuit and the facilities.'

Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen qualified down in fifth ahead of BMW's Nick Heidfeld while Toro Rosso Sebastian Vettel followed up on his Italian GP win with by taking seventh spot.

Toyota's Timo Glock qualified in eighth with Williams drivers Nico Rosberg of Williams and Kazuki Nakajima completing the top 10.

Renault's Fernando Alonso qualified down in 15th place after suffering technical problems in the second session.

Ahead of Sunday's race - the 15th of 18 season-races - Hamilton has 78 points, followed by Massa on 77, Kubica on 64 and Raikkonen on 57 points.