SAO PAULO, Brazil — Home-crowd favorite Felipe Massa has won the pole for the decisive Brazilian Grand Prix, increasing his chances of overtaking Lewis Hamilton for the Formula One title.

This is the sixth pole of the year for Massa, who needs to erase Hamilton's seven-point lead on Sunday. The Brazilian needs to win the race and hope Hamilton finishes sixth or lower. Hamilton was fourth in qualifying.

Massa posted a time of 1 minute, 12.368 seconds in his Ferrari, delighting the tens of thousands of fans packing the 2.6-mile Interlagos track Saturday.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli was second in 1:12.737 and Massa's teammate Kimi Raikkonen was third in 1:12.825. Hamilton was next in 1:12.830.