Zoom Raikkonen takes pole number 200 for Ferrari

Another all-red front row, this time with Kimi Raikkonen taking the coveted pole position, his second this season and the 16th of his career, with his Scuderia Ferrari team-mate, Felipe Massa alongside him in second place, a mere four hundredths of a second behind.

In fact, while the Finn took pole, it was the Brazilian who claimed the fastest lap of the day in the low-fuel configuration used in Q1.

The big statistical story of the day also belongs to the Scuderia as this was pole position number two hundred for the team: they date back to 1951 and the second year of the World Championship when Ferrari drivers started from the number one spot three times.

There was a truly dominant performance in 1974 with the Prancing Horse galloping to ten poles, while the record so far is 2004, when the team had twelve to its name.

As usual at this track, the gaps between the cars are all very close. Third place went to the McLaren-Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, followed by Fernando Alonso in the Renault.

Kimi Raikkonen
"I am very happy with this result, not just for myself but above all for the team. It is a pleasure to have taken Ferrari's two hundredth pole even if, at the moment, I have only played a small part in the history of Scuderia. So far, the weekend is going really well but of course we have yet to tackle the most important part which is the race, where anything could happen. The car has always been well balanced and, at least as far as the first lap is concerned, the performance of the two tyres is pretty similar, while the harder compound seems to do better over a long distance. If I was not to win, I would obviously be a bit disappointed, but the most important thing is to finish and bring home the maximum number of points, because we really need them."

Felipe Massa
"It was a good qualifying, especially the first two parts. In the third one, maybe I went a bit over the limit to try and get out all the potential from the car and I lost enough time to prevent me from doing better. However, I am happy, because we have everything in place to pick up important points for the championship. The F2008 is very competitive on this type of track and we worked in the right direction in terms of fine tuning it. Tyre choice for qualifying was not easy but so far, we have been able to be strong in all conditions. I am happy that the team recorded its two hundredth pole position today and it's an honour for me to have made a small contribution to this milestone."