ISTANBUL, May 10:Felipe Massa of Ferrari won pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix for the third straight year on Saturday. The two-time defending champion here will start first on the grid for Sunday’s race at the Istanbul Speed Park after clocking a best lap time of 1 minute, 27.617 sec.

“I think I put together a very good lap... it proved to be enough to be on pole,” Massa said. “I’m so happy here, to be on pole for the third time here. It’s a fantastic track for me.”

Heikki Kovalainen of McLaren will start second after finishing less than two-tenths of a second behind Massa. Kovalainen’s best qualifying of the season comes less than two weeks after a violent crash at the Spanish GP that left the Finn in the hospital.

Team mate Lewis Hamilton will start from third ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, while BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica goes from fifth. Mark Webber of Red Bull starts sixth ahead of Renault’s Fernando Alonso, while Jarno Trulli of Toyota, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and David Coulthard of Red Bull round out the top 10.

Massa, who won his first-ever GP here in 2006, is looking to be the first driver to win the same race three straight years since Michael Schumacher won four consecutive races at Indianapolis between 2003-06.

Forced out

Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella starts last despite finishing 19th because he exited pit lane before the green light went on to start Friday’s practice session. Teammate Adrian Sutil swapped spots with the Italian.

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