Massa on pole; Ferrari dominate in Japan

The Brazilian clocked a best time of 1:29.599 to claim the second pole of his career ahead of the German, as Ferrari locked out the front row of the grid.

Schumacher's championship rival Fernando Alonso wound up fifth after a session packed with record-breaking laps. His Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth.

The two Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli took third and fourth places and so ensured a very difficult start to the race for Alonso in his bid to beat Schumacher and keep his title challenge alive.

The third dramatic mini-session was preceded by the sight of the two Ferraris, led by Schumacher, securing the front two places in the queue at the pitlane lights, leaving the Renaults on their pit apron to squeeze ahead of the field behind them as the final flurry began.

It was a clear signal that both teams were locked in a fierce contest for positions, advantages and ultimately points and glory.

This close competition was followed by the early lapping in equally-close order and it was difficult to determine anything of fuel loads or race strategy before the final fight for pole as the temperature fell and rain-clouds gathered again.

The first session began in fine, dry conditions. The air temperature was 24 degrees Celsius and the track temperature was 30 degrees, but a gusty wind kept flags aflutter among the big crowd in the grandstands.

The first notable incident Q1 came after four minutes when Sakon Yamamoto went off at the hairpin in his Super Aguri Honda almost before many other drivers had clocked a time.

Ralf Schumacher was the first set a time in his Toyota, but after eight minutes it was his brother who took command.

Clearly enjoying himself on a track where he has won six times and started from pole position eight times, the seven-time champion clocked 1:31.279 to top the times ahead of Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber. At this stage, both Renaults remained under cover in their garage.

As if to underline their comfort zone on the track in the dry, Massa then went and clocked a lap in 1:30.112 to jump above teammate Schumacher and leave two Ferraris ahead of the pack. Both of these laps beat previous qualifying records for Suzuka.

It was clearly going to be an afternoon for fast times as shown when Trulli went second fastest for Toyota to be followed in quick succession by a group of other drivers also in the 1:30's.

By the end, the order was Massa, Trulli, Nico Rosberg in a Williams, Ralf Schumacher, Button and Alonso, and all of the top eight were inside the 2002 pole record of 1:31.317 set by Michael Schumacher.

Robert Kubica was seventh fastest for BMW Sauber, ahead of Schumacher himself.

The eliminated men were Yamamoto, Tiago Monteiro of Spyker MF1, Takuma Sato of Super Aguri, Scott Speed of Toro Rosso Cosworth, Robert Doonboss and David Coulthard, both of Red Bull Ferrari.

Both Schumacher and Alonso chose not to show for the opening minutes of Q2, when Trulli trimmed his best time of the day to 1:30.204, but when Schumacher did go out it was to deliver a lap in 1:28.954. Shortly after, Massa clocked 1:29.830.

Alonso was eighth, while Fisichella was sixth.

Those who failed to make the cut this time were Christijan Albers of Spyker, Vitantonio Liuzzi of Toro Rosso, Mark Webber of Williams, edro de la Rosa of McLaren Mercedes, Kubica and, remarkably, Kimi Raikkonen in the second McLaren, last year's winner.

It pointed to a dreadful qualifying from McLaren, a once supreme team now fighting to avoid the indignity by their standards of enduring a full season without a victory.