Brazil's Felipe Massa, Ferrari Formula One driver, is on pole position for Sunday's French Grand Prix, with McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton set to start alongside him on the front row at Magny-Cours.
"It's good to be back and fighting," declared Massa, whose team have been outgunned by McLaren for the last three races.
Finland's Kimi Raikkonen will start what may be the last grand prix at Magny-Cours in third position for Ferrari next to BMW Sauber's Polish driver Robert Kubica who is back after a horror crash in the Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton's team mate and defending Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso, who is 10 points behind the 22-year-old British rookie after seven races, endured a nightmare day and qualified 10th.
Already sidelined for most of the day's final practice session due to a brake sensor problem, the Spaniard did not set a time in the final qualifying session after hitting further mechanical trouble.
"I don't really know what happened," said Hamilton.
"I was behind him and just saw a little bit of smoke at one of the corners."
Alonso returned to the garage and sat in his car as mechanics worked around him in an ultimately futile race against time, before stepping out and removing his helmet with five minutes remaining.
Massa's pole position, with a lap 0.070 seconds faster than Hamilton's best, was the Brazilian's fourth of the season and seventh of his career.
It also ended McLaren's run of three poles in a row and confirmed Ferrari's return to the front, with retired seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher in attendance at the circuit where he won for a record eighth time last year.
Hamilton, winner of the last two races from pole position, said he was confident there was still everything to play for.
"You can't be perfect all the time," said the Briton.
"I had the car to be on pole but I lost a bit of time on turn 15. That's the way it goes.
"I believe we still have the pace of the Ferraris and we'll see what happens tomorrow."