The Finn finished ahead of both Ferraris, with championship leader Fernando Alonso back in 10th. Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who is expected to announce his retirement today, is also on the front row of the grid, finishing just 0.002 seconds behind Raikkonen’s qualifying time.
Schumacher, who is 12 points behind Alonso with four races remaining, still believes that he can win an eighth title. He will be desperate to beat the man who is likely to replace him next season, so fireworks can be expected from the start.
It was the 11th pole of Raikkonen’s career and his third of the season, having also started first in Germany and Hungary, but he is still looking for his first victory of 2006 and knows that he will have to produce something special if that is to change here.
“It could go either way, but I’m quite confident,” he said.
BMW-Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was third, Schumacher’s Ferrari teammate, Felipe Massa, fourth and Honda’s Jenson Button sixth.
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“If you look at where in particular Fernando is, it’s not too bad for us,” Schumacher said. “It would be nice to be on pole in our home grand prix, but the important thing is to perform.”
Alonso originally qualified in fifth place, but lost five places after Massa complained to stewards that the Spaniard had held him up. It was a bad day for the world champion, who had earlier shredded his right rear tyre. He drove back into the pits with only a few rubber shreds hanging on to the steel cylinder of the wheel. He eventually returned to the track, but wasn’t able to catch the leaders.
Before facing the stewards, Alonso protested his innocence, claiming: “Massa complained about me blocking his lap and my point of view is quite clear. He was 300-400m behind me. It’s a strange complaint. I did my out lap at maximum so I didn’t block anyone. I did my best sector times in the out lap.”
Massa calimed, however, that Alonso had cost him at least 0.3sec.