Brazilian Felipe Massa will start from pole position in Sunday's Brazil Grand Prix after the Ferrari driver emerged fastest from final qualifying at Interlagos on Saturday.

Massa posted a time of 1 minute, 12.368 seconds in his Ferrari, delighting the tens of thousands of fans packing the 4.3-kilometre (2.6-mile) Interlagos track.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli was second with a time or 1:12.737, and Massa's teammate Kimi Raikkonen was third in 1:12.825.

It is the sixth pole of the year for Massa, who needs to win the race and hope championship-leading Briton Lewis Hamilton finishes sixth or lower to erase his seven-point lead.

Hamilton could only record the fourth fastest time in qualifying to leave him on the second row for the Formula One World Championship title-deciding race.

Hamilton's fastest lap finished in a time of 1:12.830.

It was the first time any driver has taken three successive poles on this track, even eclipsing the legendary Ayrton Senna.

Massa, who trails Hamilton by seven points, now has the perfect launchpad to overhaul the 23-year-old McLaren driver.

Hamilton, who has to finish in the top five to take the title, at least has his own team-mate in Heikki Kovalainen behind him ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso.

Sebastian Vettel starts seventh for Toro Rosso, with Nick Heidfeld eighth in his BMW Sauber, followed by the second Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais and Toyota's Timo Glock.

Meanwhile, David Coulthard finished 14th in the first qualifying session to miss out on the top ten shootout for the starting grid in his final Grand Prix.

Read Ed Gorman's Formula One blog here