Massa swoops late for Turkish pole

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Felipe Massa's superb final lap in one minute, 27.617 seconds earned him pole position at the Turkish Grand Prix for the third successive year.

The Ferrari driver went on to win in 2006 and 2007 and goes into Sunday's race in good shape to complete the hat-trick.

"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.

"It's been a bit of a roller coaster obviously," Kovalainen said. "A big accident in Spain and I have been lucky to survive without any injuries. Coming here ... I felt very confident with the car. It's a pleasure to start from front row."

A defective wheel part caused a tire on Kovalainen's car to explode and send him barreling into a wall at high speed. Though he had to spend the night in a hospital with a concussion, Kovalainen was cleared for Sunday's race after passing medical checks by governing body FIA on Thursday.

Teammate 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 Jarni 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 in Turkey in 2006, is looking to be the first driver to win the same race three straight years since former teammate Michael Schumacher won four consecutive races at Indianapolis between 2003-06.