Felipe Massa took pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix for the second year running and will form an all-Ferrari front-row with Kimi Raikkonen.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton will start in fourth, with his McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen joining him on the second row at a Sepang circuit where humidity crept to over 80 percent during qualifying.

Brazilian Massa, fifth in Malaysia last year, recorded a time of 1:35.748, nearly half-a-second ahead of Raikkonen (1:36.230) as the threatened rain held off until moments after the session.

Massa did not look comfortable in Q2, re-emerging - along with Hamilton - late on to set a precautionary final lap as he dropped down the timing list and used another set of valuable tyres.

However, he improved immeasurably in the Q3 shoot-out, completing a stunning turn around for the Scuderia after their Melbourne horror show.

Kovalainen and Hamilton followed close behind the Ferraris on the final straight as the seconds ticked away, but the Briton could not match the Finn's 1:36.613 with his 1:36.709.

Hamilton did not look at his best throughout the qualifying hour, consistently lapping outside the top times in each section and was forced into that desperate - and ultimately unnecessary - last lap on Q2.

He even locked up at one point early on when he could not find the grip he required to set a time to challenge the Italian outfit.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli (1:36.711) produced a shock by snatching fifth place late in the session from BMW's Robert Kubica (1:36.727), whose hot lap was even faster than that of the pole-sitter in the first sector before losing time on the final part of the track.

German Nick Heidfeld's BMW was good enough for a comfortable seventh after putting down a time of 1:36.753 from Mark Webber's (1:37.009) Red Bull, while Fernando Alonso of Renault could only manage ninth.

Timo Glock completed an impressive day for Toyota by reaching the third qualifying phase, but had to settle for 10th.

Britons Jenson Button (Honda) and David Coulthard (Red Bull) just missed out on Q3, and will start at 11th and 12th on Sunday.

Scot Coulthard in particular will be pleased after safety concerns almost ruled him out of the race altogether due to a crash in practice.

German Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso failed to get going, as did Williams' Nico Rosberg. They secured only 15th and 16th positions respectively.

Vettel's team-mate Sebastien Bourdais was the only driver to go off into the gravel and ended 19th, while in the final 22nd spot was young Briton Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri.

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport