Massa beats Alonso to Spanish GP pole

The world champion's first flying lap of Q3 had put him over four tenths of a second clear of the two Ferraris and Lewis Hamilton, who were covered by just 0.147 seconds at the time.

Kimi Raikkonen and Hamilton were unable to make sufficient improvements on their final runs, but Massa found 0.7 seconds on his second attempt and grabbed a shock pole position - reversing the trend set by McLaren's run of fastest times in practice.

Alonso improved his time, but fell just short and had to settle for second, ahead of Raikkonen and Hamilton.

Robert Kubica took fifth, with Toyota's Jarno Trulli splitting the BMWs in sixth place.

Renault's Heikki Kovalainen made it into the top ten for the first time in his Formula One career and qualified eighth, two places and 0.3 seconds ahead of teammate Giancarlo Fisichella.

David Coulthard will start between the Renaults in ninth, having also made his first Q1 appearance of 2007.

Nico Rosberg (Williams) was the fastest of those to miss the top ten cut and will start 11th, ahead of Rubens Barrichello, who outqualified his Honda teammate Jenson Button by two positions.

The Super Aguris had no problem getting out of Q1, but their challenge faltered in Q2. Takuma Sato managed to qualify 13th before stopping on track after his first run , while Anthony Davidson went off the road on both his flying laps - first at Turn 3, then with a spin across the Turn 9 gravel.

Davidson consequently failed to set a time, but will start 15th ahead of Vitantonio Liuzzi, whose Toro Rosso developed a transmission problem and failed to leave the garage in Q2.

The same issue consigned Liuzzi's teammate Scott Speed to last on the grid.

Mark Webber was also in trouble in Q1, ending up 19th after a hydraulic glitch halted his Red Bull.

He was one of several big names eliminated at the first qualifying cut-off, as Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and Williams' Alex Wurz were also knocked out early. Both cited traffic for their failure to improve on 17th and 18th.

The Spykers will start 20th and 21st, Adrian Sutil outqualifying Christijan Albers after the Dutch driver visited the Turn 9 gravel on his last flying lap.