Robert Kubica wiped the smile off Ferrari's faces by storming to a superb last-gasp pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix – the third round on the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship calendar – pipping former weekend pace-setter Felipe Massa by the narrow margin of four hundredths of a second.

Massa had shown his rivals little mercy since the opening desert salvo on Friday morning in Sakhir, and was more than half a second quicker than anyone else in Q2. Perhaps tellingly, though, his closest challenger in that session had been Kubica, and when the Brazilian failed to convert his pace and potential into the top spot in Q3, the Pole was there to pounce.

Kubica is enjoying a mightily impressive second full season in the top flight with BMW Sauber, and his qualifying achievement in Bahrain is inarguably the crowning moment of his career to-date. Whether the Sepang runner-up will be able to hold off the Ferrari and McLaren threat in the race remains to be seen, but his first pole position and the first for his Munich and Hinwil-based team is surely a sign that BMW has very much arrived in 2008.

Behind Kubica and Massa, Lewis Hamilton produced a strong effort to beat Kimi Raikkonen to third spot on the starting grid, the pair respectively two and three tenths of a second shy of Kubica's quickest lap. For Hamilton, gaining the advantage over his world championship rival was decisive – though it is widely believed that Raikkonen is on a heavy fuel load for the race – and the Briton was backed up by McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Heikki Kovalainen a further two tenths behind in fifth.

Nick Heidfeld wound up sixth-quickest in the sister F1.08, having never matched the pace of Kubica weekend-long, with Jarno Trulli and a slightly disappointed Nico Rosberg sharing row four. The top ten is completed by Jenson Button – annexing his highest starting position since Fuji last year – and Fernando Alonso, whom Massa blamed for his loss of concentration in the final crucial seconds.

Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello were the highest-profile victims of the Q2 chop, and will consequently begin the grand prix from row six, ahead of Timo Glock and Nelsinho Piquet, the Renault rookie failing to achieve his target of making it into the final shoot-out for the first time.

Sébastien Bourdais – who has shown a great deal of promise in what is still only his third Formula 1 weekend in Sakhir – wound up 15th after grappling with his Scuderia Toro Rosso in Q3. The Frenchman will begin ahead of Kazuki Nakajima, David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella, Sebastian Vettel, Adrian Sutil, Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato, who had caused the red flags to fly in Q1 after spinning in the final corner and planting the rear of his Super Aguri Honda in the start of the pit straight barriers.

To see the qualifying times and positions in full, click here