Istanbul - Nothing seems to slow Felipe Massa down in Turkey. Massa, who won his first Grand Prix race here in 2006, took pole position for the third successive year yesterday.

The two-time defending champion will start first on the grid for today's race at the Istanbul Speed Park after clocking a best lap time of 1min 27.617sec.

'I think I put together a very good lap...it proved to be enough to be on pole,'' Massa said. 'I'm so happy to be on pole for the third time here.''

Heikki Kovalainen of McLaren will start second, after finishing less than two-tenths of a second behind Massa.

Kovalainen's best career qualifying position comes less than two weeks after a violent crash at the Spanish GP that left the Finn in hospital.

A defective wheel part caused a tyre on his car to explode and sent him barrelling into a wall at high speed.

Though he had to spend the night in a hospital with concussion, Kovalainen was cleared for today's race after passing medical checks by governing body FIA on Thursday.

His McLaren teammate, Lewis Hamilton, will start from third, ahead of reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, while BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica goes from fifth.

Mark Webber of Red Bull starts sixth ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso, while Jarni Trulli of Toyota, BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and David Coulthard of Red Bull rounded out the top 10.

Massa is looking to be the first driver to win the same race three straight years. No one has done that since former teammate Michael Schumacher won four consecutive races at Indianapolis between 2003 and 2006.

AP, AFP

Turkish Grand Prix
Live, Ch24, 7.45pm