MONACO (Reuters) - Brazilian Felipe Massa seized pole position from Ferrari team mate 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 Lewis Hamilton was third quickest on an all-McLaren second row with Finnish team mate Heikki Kovalainen.

"I still cannot believe that I'm on pole," said Massa, who now has a real chance of becoming the first Brazilian since the late Ayrton Senna in 1993 to win the season's showcase race.

"I was pushing very hard during these days to learn how to drive here because it was a place where I was struggling every time I came here."

It was Ferrari's first pole in Monaco since Michael Schumacher in 2000 and Massa's task now is to become the team's first winner since the German's victory in 2001 and also to end a 29-year jinx.

The last Ferrari driver to win in the Mediterranean principality from pole position was South African Jody Scheckter in 1979 and Sunday's forecast is for rain, which could play havoc with the field.

HAMILTON DISAPPOINTMENT

The qualifying session, with grey skies threatening rain after showers overnight and in the morning, was a disappointment for Hamilton on a favourite track. He had set the fastest time in Thursday practice.

"I think we did a solid job," said Hamilton, runner-up in a McLaren one-two last year. "For sure we anticipated we'd be a little bit quicker, I guess we're surprised by the Ferrari pace.

"We lost a little bit I think in the last sector but generally the car felt good.

"We'll push very hard in the race and I'm sure we'll be able to compete."

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.

Alonso's struggling team mate, Brazilian rookie Nelson Piquet, did his cause no good with another disappointing performance in qualifying 17th.

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.

The Scot, twice a Monaco winner with McLaren, hit the guardrail before skidding down an escape route after the harbour chicane with one of the car's rear wheels breaking away and bouncing down the track in front of the moored yachts.

Coulthard, at 37 the oldest driver on the starting grid, escaped unhurt. Unable to take part in the final part of qualifying despite making the cut, he will start 10th and alongside Australian team mate Mark Webber.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, Editing by Clare Fallon)