Brazilian Felipe Massa led a Ferrari front row sweep in Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday while McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton was demoted to ninth place for impeding rivals. Massa secured the 10th pole position of his career ahead of world champion teammate Kimi Raikkonen to revive Ferrari's morale after a dismal start to the season in Australia last weekend. “Our championship starts now because what happened in the last race was incredible,” said Massa, who also started on pole at Sepang last year. “We did not expect that but we did a very good job during the week and hopefully we can put everything together now to have a quick and consistent championship.” While the Italian team set the pace, stewards handed Hamilton and Finnish teammate Heikki Kovalainen five place penalties after the pair had qualified together on the second row. Kovalainen will now be eighth on the starting grid for what could be a wet and treacherous race, with 23-year-old Briton Hamilton behind him in ninth place. “We accept the stewards' decision but would like to add that neither Lewis nor Heikki impeded any of the competitors deliberately,” said McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh. “It was an unfortunate incident - nothing more, nothing less - and we look forward to the race.” Italian Jarno Trulli, in a Toyota, and Poland's Robert Kubica in a BMW Sauber moved up to take the third and fourth slots. Driving in hot and humid conditions under heavy cloud cover, Massa lapped 0.482 seconds quicker than Raikkonen. Ferrari had been in imperious form all weekend and their front row sweep was the team's first since last September's Belgian Grand Prix. Raikkonen was still disappointed with his performance after setting the fastest time of the weekend in the second session. “I was not too happy with the last section of qualifying,” said the Finn. Hamilton, winner in Melbourne but out-qualified by his new Finnish teammate for the first time, will struggle to repeat last year's second place. “We changed some things today and I'm not really sure whether it was the right way to go or not but we'll see,” said the Briton, who had not been off the front row since Belgium last year. Last year's race winner Fernando Alonso, Spain's double world champion who has returned to Renault after a difficult year alongside Hamilton at McLaren, was one of those who protested about the McLarens and will start seventh. Germany's Nick Heidfeld, for BMW Sauber, moved up to fifth with Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull sixth. “In Q3 most of the cars were already very, very slow when I was on my flying lap, just like (they were) parked on the circuit,” Heidfeld had told Britain's ITV television after qualifying. “The biggest fault was both of the McLarens in front of turn four, being in the middle of the racing line and I could not be on the line I wanted, especially for braking.” __
