Monaco: Brazilian Felipe Massa seized pole position from Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday.

Massa, who had said before qualifying that he was no fan of the twisting street circuit, kept away from the unforgiving metal barriers as he blasted to his 12th Formula One pole position and third of the season.

He set his time of one minute 15.787 seconds with his last lap after world champion Raikkonen, a Monaco winner with McLaren in 2005, had moments earlier lapped in 1:15.815.

McLaren’s 23-year-old Briton Lewis Hamilton was third quickest on an all-McLaren second row with Finnish teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

BMW Sauber’s Polish driver Robert Kubica shared the third row with Germany’s Nico Rosberg in a Williams while double world champion Fernando Alonso, winner for the past two years in Monaco, was seventh for Renault.

Toyota’s Italian Jarno Trulli, Monaco winner with Renault in 2004, qualified eighth.

Red Bull’s David Coulthard crashed heavily towards the end of the second qualifying session as he emerged from the tunnel, the fastest point of the twisting street circuit where cars reach around 280 kph.

Coulthard, at 37 the oldest driver on the starting grid, escaped unhurt. Giancarlo Fisichella will start from the back of the grid, while his Force India teammate Adrian Sutil will join him in the last row at the 19th place.