Massa claimed the 100th pole position in Ferrari's history

Massa claimed pole for Ferrari by just under three-tenths of a second from 22-year-old Hamilton after posting a time of one minute 32.652 seconds.

Kimi Raikkonen was third while Hamilton's McLaren team-mate, world champion Fernando Alonso, was fourth.

Anthony Davidson was 13th, Jenson Button 16th and David Coulthard 21st.

The BMW pair of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica will fill the third row of the grid.

Hamilton is taking part in just his third Grand Prix and this is the first time he has qualified on the front row of the grid.

I am very happy and scoring the 100th pole for Ferrari is very nice for me Pole sitter Felipe Massa

He will become the first driver in history to make the podium in his first three races if he finishes in the top three in Bahrain after coming third in Australia and second in Malaysia.

"We came here extremely competitive after two good races and to get on the front row in my third race in Formula One is an amazing feeling," he said.

"To be honest my last lap wasn't that great. I had better laps earlier on and it was tough, but you have to try to pull out absolutely everything on that last lap.

"But to get second, I am very happy for the team and looking forward to the race tomorrow."

Massa, who was also the fastest qualifier last weekend in Malaysia, claimed a landmark pole for Ferrari.

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"I am very happy and scoring the 100th pole for Ferrari is very nice for me," he said.

"We showed today the car is competitive and very quick, and yesterday we showed we are very strong on the long runs.

"Hopefully we can put things together tomorrow and start a bit of a different championship from now."

Veteran Scot Coulthard had gearbox problems and went out in the first session, while Button grabbed the final place for the second session.

However, he never looked like reaching the top 10 and was duly eliminated in the second session, although Davidson only missed out on the final run by two-tenths of a second.

Bahrain Grand Prix grid:
1. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:32.652
2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:32.935
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:33.131
4. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 1:33.192
5. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:33.404
6. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:33.710
7. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 1:34.056
8. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull-Renault 1:34.106
9. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:34.154
10. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams-Toyota 1:34.399
11. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams-Toyota 1:32.915
12. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault 1:32.935
13. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri-Honda 1:33.082
14. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 1:33.294
15. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1:33.624
16. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:33.731
17. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri-Honda 1:33.984
18. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:34.024
19. Scott Speed (US) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:34.333
20. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker-Ferrari 1:35.280
21. David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull-Renault 1:35.341
22. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Spyker-Ferrari 1:35.533