Massa grabs French GP pole

[Dare]

French GP - Massa nicks pole from Hamilton
Eurosport - Sat, 30 Jun 14:30:00 2007
Ferrari's Felipe Massa has denied British star Lewis Hamilton pole position for the French Grand Prix

Massa clocked a 1:15.034 with his penultimate lap of the session, and managed to hold off the drivers' championship leader by seven hundredths of a second.

Kimi Raikkonen was a further tenth and a half adrift as he was again outqualified by his Ferrari team-mate ahead of the final race at the unloved Magny-Cours circuit in Burgundy.

Alonso's misfortune - having been ragged all weekend - could see Hamilton extend his championship lead even further.

His car emitted a puff of smoke early in the final part of the three-stage qualifying session and Alonso limped back to the pits, where McLaren mechanics could not fix the problem in the time available.

As well as starting the race halfway down the field, Alonso will be further handicapped by starting the race with a heavy fuel load.

The 22-year-old Hamilton is already 10 points clear of his team-mate, and will look to put more distance between himself and the increasingly disaffected Spaniard on Sunday.

Robert Kubica made a superb return to F1 after his horrifying crash at the United States GP, qualifying fourth ahead of Renault duo Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen.

Red Bull's David Coulthard fell victim to yet more mechanical trouble, having to settle for 16th after suffering a problem with his electronics in the second part of qualifying.

Jenson Button declared himself reasonably pleased with 12th position, while Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson was just 20th.

"It's not exciting to be P12, but we are in front of the Toro Rossos, the Red Bulls and the Super Aguris. We have made a step forward," said Button.

- Alex Chick -