Saturday 23 August at 16:01 : Felipe Massa will start tomorrows European Grand-Prix in the streets of Valencia from Pole-Position. In the qualifcation Massa was able to beat Hamilton, and Kubica. Kimi Raikkonen will start 4th while Sebastian Vettel suprised with a 5th spot.

On the new urban circuit of Valencia, almost all drivers run a very busy Q1 in order to get comfortable with the continuously changing track conditions. Early on the weekend, the track was reported as very dirty, resulting in laptimes almost 6 seconds slower than the teams had anticipated from their simulations.

In what is also a discovery session for most of the tv spectators, Hamilton takes the early lead with 4 minutes to go. Several drivers have been locking wheels on the harbour's bridge.

2 minutes before the sessions's closure, Massa tops Hamilton on the super soft tyres. Meanwhile Heidfeld is again in trouble and is angry at Glock for blocking him. One lap later he improves and qualifies for Q2.

At the end of the session, Trulli is fastest, ahead of Vettel, Massa and Alonso. At the back, Button, Coulthard, Barrichello and both Force India's are out.

Q2 proves to be very tense with Vettel masterfully in the lead. Both Renaults are however in the danger zone after their first attempts and aim to improve in their final laps at session's ending.

The final laps however hardly showed any improvement in laptimes. It knocks out Alonso and his teammate, along with the remaining Red Bull of Webber and Nakajima and Glock.

Jarno Trulli is the first out in Q3, quickly followed by Vettel. The Ferrari's quickly prove fastest as Massa tops Raikkonen. Kubica comes in third. Lewis Hamilton is fourth but made a mistake and is also on the super soft option tyre, contrary to both Ferrari drivers.

Lewis is the first to start his final attempt and improves on the provisional best. Raikkonen fails to improve but it is eventually Massa who again tops the McLaren. Kubica comes in third.

European GP, qualification
1 F. Massa Ferrari 1:38.989
2 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:39.199
3 R. Kubica BMW 1:39.392
4 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:39.488
5 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:39.937
6 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.142
7 J. Trulli Toyota 1:40.309
8 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:40.631
9 N. Rosberg Williams 1:40.721
10 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.750
11 K. Nakajima Williams 1:38.428
12 F. Alonso Renault 1:38.435
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:38.499
14 M. Webber Red Bull 1:38.515
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:38.744
16 J. Button Honda 1:38.880
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:39.235
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:39.268
19 R. Barrichello Honda 1:39.811
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:39.943