Schumacher delighted to be back on pole

Seven times World Champion Schumacher equalled Brazilian Ayrton Senna's record of 65 career pole positions and was the first driver to secure pole under Formula One's new qualifying format.

It was Schumacher's first pole since last year's Hungarian Grand Prix.

"It's been a long time," said Schumacher. "I had to wait to get back up here and it was a lot of hard work in the meantime. It is an amazing result.

"All winter we seemed to have a good package, but you wait for the final confirmation and we have the confirmation of all the hard work that has been done to put us back up here.

"It is a great feeling and it was too long."

Asked about Senna's record, Schumacher said: "It makes me proud. That is probably all I can say about it."

Drivers fought through two knockout sessions before a final 20-minute scramble for pole, with Ferrari timing their session perfectly to emerge on top.

"It has been very exciting, particularly the first session as we wanted to leave it towards the end but the red flag meant we got just one run," Schumacher added. "The second one was more straightforward to stay in the top ten.

"Then we had good concept to arrange ourselves for pole position. Our team has worked very well."

Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa joined him on the front row in his first race for Ferrari, in the Italian squad's first front row lockout since the 2004 Hungarian Grand Prix.

"I am really happy for that," said Massa. "I would say I am happy to be inside the Ferrari team, it is amazing how the team works and I knew from the first test I did that it was going to be a much more competitive year for me to show what I can do.

"Definitely it is a great start and I am happy to be inside the top two for the first race of the season."

Massa claimed he could have finished on pole if not for Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella holding him up during a flying lap.

"I am happy to be second but I have to thank Giancarlo because he took away pole because I could have improved my laptime but caused me some time. But it is a great start for me and for Michael and for everyone in the team."