Alonso pole overshadowed by Massa crash in Hungarian Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso claimed his first pole position for nearly two years Saturday, but his efforts were overshadowed by a 200kph crash suffered by Ferrari's Felipe Massa at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Brazilian 28-year-old Massa, the world championship runner-up to Lewis Hamilton in 2008, was airlifted to hospital and underwent surgery to repair his skull which was fractured when his car careered off the track.

Massa was hit in the face by a piece of debris which had flown off the Brawn GP car of compatriot Rubens Barrichello in the second session of qualifying where the Ferrari man had been eighth fastest.

He will not race on Sunday and will remain in intensive care at a Budapest hospital.

"Felipe Massa has undergone surgery at the AEK hospital in Budapest and the outcome of the procedure was positive. Now Felipe will remain under observation in intensive care," said a Ferrari statement.

"An update on his condition will be issued late Sunday morning."

The team said that Massa suffered skull damage, cuts to his forehead and brain concussion.

The Brawn team confirmed that Barrichello's car lost a piece of suspension and on-board film from Massa's Ferrari showed him being struck, losing control and going off the track.

"My thoughts right now are with Felipe and his family who are really close friends of mine and I hope he is going to be ok and will be fit as soon as possible," said Barrichello.

Alonso, the 27-year-old Renault driver, claimed his 18th career pole and said he was thinking only of scoring points for his team in what promises to be a tough 70-lap contest in hot conditions.

The Spaniard said: "This is a special circuit for me because I had my first win here in 2003 - so I am always happy when I drive in Budapest and it will be interesting on Sunday.

"We have made a good step forward and the car did improve in the last two races. We are more competitive, but I don't think we are as quick as these two guys (the Red Bull team)."

Alonso added that it had been a stressful qualifying session for all kinds of reasons.

He said: "In Q1, we had a yellow flag because of the Toro Rosso off the track.

"I was down in P15 and had to do a lap to get into Q2. Then in Q3, the times were not working and we were in parc ferme, we were chatting between ourselves to ask what times we did to see who was on pole position."

It was only when Alonso, German Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team-mate Australian Mark Webber came out to wave to the fans that it appeared confirmed that they were fastest in that order.

Several minutes later came confirmation that defending champion Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest for McLaren Mercedes ahead of German Nico Rosberg of Williams and Finn Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren.

Another Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari qualified seventh ahead of championship leader Briton Jenson Button in a Brawn GP car with Japanese Kazuki Nakajima ninth for Williams and Massa, who took no part in the top ten shootout, placed 10th.