SEPANG, Malaysia, March 22, 2008 (AFP) - Felipe Massa and the Ferrari team had cause for a sensational double celebration here Saturday after grabbing pole position for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Hours later, following long deliberations by the race stewards, they were told that rivals McLaren had been moved back five places on the grid for blocking other teams' drivers during a frantic finale to qualifying.

Massa and his Ferrari team-mate, defending champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen, had already dominated and locked out the front row of the grid for the scarlet scuderia before the drama erupted.

It started when BMW's German driver Nick Heidfeld complained that both Briton Lewis Hamilton and Finn Heikki Kovalainen had impeded his flying lap and cost him a top four grid spot.

He and his team were backed up by the protests from another driver whose late charge was foiled - double champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso, of Renault.

Both teams, BMW and Renault, took their complaints to the stewards.

Hamilton and Kovalainen were on slow laps back to the pits after doing their flying runs and seemed not to realise that other drivers were still trying to improve their times with fast laps.

A McLaren spokesman confirmed that the two drivers had been penalised and that Kovalainen and Hamilton will now start Sunday's race from eighth and ninth places on the grid respectively.

An eye-witness of the incident, Poland's Robert Kubica, in a BMW, said: "I saw clearly that Alonso's lap was screwed because of, I think, Kovalainen staying on the racing line.

"Nick (Heidfeld) was a bit more lucky because his incident was before braking, so he could rejoin the good line. But Alonso, he had to brake inside and he lost for sure there a lot of time. It was quite dangerous."

The incident, which revives memories of last season's controversies surrounding the McLaren team, came to light after the Ferrari drivers had given the Italian team the boost they needed following their opening race disaster in
Australia.

McLaren operations boss Martin Whitmarsh said: "We accept the stewards' decisions, but would like to add that neither Lewis nor Heikki impeded any of their competitors deliberately. It was an unfortunate incident, nothing more, nothing less. We look forward to tomorrow's race."

Heidfeld said: "I gain two position - it is better than seventh. I felt that I was hampered on my fast lap and obviously the stewards felt the same way. I was impeded and I lost laptime, so did Fernando."

Massa, 26, said he was determined to win Sunday's race following both drivers' failure to finish in Melbourne.

"We had a weekend to forget in Australia and now I hope we can have a reliable car and finish off the job we have done here so far," said Massa.

"I was lucky to have a really great lap and I found the grip for the car in that session."

The Sao Paulo-born star grabbed his 10th pole with a masterful fast lap late in the qualifying session when rain was threatening, but only a few drops fell.

"It was no problem. We were watching for the weather and there were a few drops, but that was all," he said.
Raikkonen, from Finland, was upbeat about his chances from second on the grid.

"If it rains, it will be tricky, as it always is here, so we have to see. This is a traditional circuit and not at all like Melbourne so we have to see what happens to show us where we are," he said.

Italian Jarno Trulli will line up third for Toyota, ahead of Poland's Robert Kubica, his BMW team-mate Heidfeld and Australian Mark Webber, who made up a little for his Melbourne disappointment by taking sixth place for Red
Bull.

Double world champion Alonso was seventh for Renault, after the stewards ruling, and German Timo Glock in his Toyota remained tenth.