The 23-year-old from Krakow, taking part in his 27th Grand Prix, outpaced nearest rivals Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari and old friend and current drivers' championship leading Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren.

Kubica recorded the fastest lap of 1min 33.096sec in the final stages of the third part-section of yesterday's session to give his team their first prime starting place.

'After yesterday, I knew I had to develop things a bit and I managed to do that a lot,' said a deadpan Kubica.

He explained that he had a very difficult car, despite his fast lap and achievement.

He said that this was partly due to a pre-season fitness and weight-loss campaign which saw him lose six kilos.

'I am fitter, I lost it,' he said. 'But it is difficult to say if it is just the lighter driver. I think if I am lighter, I go quicker.

'So I decided with the engineer to reduce weight from the car, and from myself, and this is the result.'

Massa showed he is improving, after two pointless and error-strewn outings in Australian and Malaysia.

Hamilton crashed heavily in his McLaren on Friday in practice and had to use the team's spare chassis, built overnight at the circuit.

He put in a huge effort and set the fastest time of the part-session with seconds remaining, but it was not enough.

He said: 'For me, the accident makes no difference and I just get in the car and go faster. Today I was quicker in that corner than yesterday.

'I think it is important to bounce back and knock down that barrier - I have never had any problems like that in my career.'

Defending world champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen will start fourth in the other Ferrari.

Japan's Takuma Sato crashed his Super Aguri in the first qualifying session, after hitting the kerb at the final corner too hard.

AFP

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