Budapest - Fernando Alonso in a Renault claimed pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix Sunday in a qualifying session overshadowed by a crash involving Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

The two-time world champion registered a time of 1 minute 21.569 seconds for the 4.381-kilometre Hungaroring circuit and will start alongside Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel for the 70-lap race on Sunday after the German clocked 1:21.607.

Vettel's teammate Mark Webber, who celebrated the first GP win of his career the Nuerburgring earlier this month, starts from third followed by defending world champion Lewis Hamilton in the improving McLaren-Mercedes.

Nico Rosberg of Williams was fifth fastest, with Heikki Kovalainen sixth in the second McLaren ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

Championship leader Jenson Button of Brawn GP could only manage eighth, with Kazuki Nakajima ninth and Massa 10th after the Ferrari driver failed to register a time in the final session.

Massa crashed heavily in second qualifying after being hit on the helmet by a piece of flying debris believed to have come from the Brawn GP car of Rubens Barrichello.

The Brazilian received attention at the circuit's medical centre, where he was subsequently visited by compatriot Barrichello, who reported that he did not appear to have suffered any serious injury.

Barrichello qualified down in 13th as result of losing a piece of his car's suspension as Brawn failed to get both cars into the top-10 for the first time.

It was a disappointing session for BMW-Sauber as both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld failed to make it past the first qualifying session.

Button holds a comfortable lead in the standings after nine races with 68 points. Vettel sits second with 47, Webber has 45.5 followed by Barrichello with 44 points. (dpa)