The pole victory was Massa's second of the season and 11th of his F1 career.

"I put two very good laps together and it was enough to be on the pole," said Massa. "This is a fantastic track for me."

Starting on the front row with Massa will be McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen who was second best at 1:27.808.

Lewis Hamilton (1:27.923) and defending World Champion Kimi Raikkonen (1:27.936) will make up row two.

Massa was quickest in the first session which saw the elimination of five drivers. There were five drivers dropped instead of six with the withdrawal of the Super Aguri team due to financial problems.

Raikkonen was fastest in Q2 edging BMW's Robert Kubica by 0.079 seconds and five more drivers were eliminated.

The final session, with race day fuel loads on board, saw Massa quickest with the two McLaren's between the Ferrari drivers.

It's beginning to look like a very "red" summer in the Formula One Series. The red Ferrari has been taking over of late, with both Raikkonen and teammate Massa showing strong.

Raikkonen has scored points in all four events, opening with a mediocre eighth-place finish, but posting two wins and a second place since. Massa made a couple of mistakes in the first two races, but has finished first and second in the last two events.

So between them they have won the last three events...and by convincing margins. Raikkonen won the Malaysian Grand Prix by 19 seconds and the last two events have been Ferrari sweeps.

"It was a perfect weekend for us in Barcelona," said Raikkonen of his win two weeks ago at the Spanish GP. "We were going really fast all the time and we didn't have the slightest problem. Many times I have won and afterwards still had the feeling that it could have gone better. This time I did not have that feeling: this was probably the best weekend I've ever had in my career."

Last year's race, which was held later in the season, was also a Ferrari sweep with Massa leading Raikkonen over the line.

The race is scheduled to begin on Sunday at 8 a.m. (et).