Raikkonen takes pole at Imola
Kimi Raikkonen broke Renault’s stranglehold on Formula One by claiming pole position for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola this morning.
Renault lead both world championships after three consecutive wins from pole position but McLaren ace Raikkonen ended that 100% by taking top spot today.
Raikkonen held a slender 0.003-second advantage from first qualifying, setting up the first real Sunday battle for pole position since the new aggregate system was introduced this year.
He outpaced world championship leader Fernando Alonso by over half a second to hold on to top spot, with the Renault driver starting this afternoon’s race from along side in second.
World champion Michael Schumacher made a rare error to slip out of contention for victory.
The Ferrari driver held third position overnight but a mistake at the Rivazza corner saw him run wide, bounce through the gravel and lose around three seconds.
That dropped him well off the pace and Schumacher will start down in 13th, which would have been even worse had Felipe Massa not incurred a 10-place penalty for changing his engine.
Jenson Button kept up his challenge for a first podium this season with a fine lap today to move on to the second row of the grid, helped by Schumacher’s problem.
The BAR-Honda driver improved two places on yesterday’s results by overhauling the Williams of Mark Webber to earn third spot as the Australian slipped to fourth.
