Massa takes pole in Austria

The 33-year-old Massa outpaced the competition with a best lap of one minute and 08.759 seconds, to finish 0.087 seconds ahead of Bottas, his Finnish team-mate. Germany's Nico Rosberg, who leads the drivers standings, was third-fastest in his Mercedes. Until Austria, Mercedes had taken the pole position for every single Formula One race this season.

Rosberg's British team-mate,Lewis Hamilton, spun off of the track in the final qualifying round and will start from ninth in the grid.

"Williams are back to the top, they are back to fight. I am pleased for me and the team as well," said Massa, who on Sunday is to start from the pole position for the first time since 2008, when he was with German driving legend Michael Schumacher's' former team, Ferrari.

"After a long time I hope this is just the beginning of great possibilities. I hope to be in this position again," he added.

Bottas appeared equally pleased by his best-ever performance in qualifying.

"It's a great result for the team. We've made progress throughout the year and now we get this result. The hard work is all paying off," he said.

For the defending four-time drivers champion, Sebastian Vettel, it was more disappointment on Saturday, as he only managed to qualify in 12th spot.

"I'm not happy, let's put it that way," the German Red Bull driver said. "I think anything is possible tomorrow but surely we are not as quick as we'd like to be."

pfd/se (Reuters, AFP)