Ferrari have their first all-front-row start of the season at Spa, after a dramatic end to Saturday afternoon's Q3 qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen took pole position away from team mate Felipe Massa during the final runs on Bridgestone’s soft rubber, the Finn’s 1m 45.994s lap beating the Brazilian’s 1m 46.011s. Massa locked up slightly in the final chicane, and felt that made the crucial difference.

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso seemed to have blown his chances with a spin on his penultimate run, losing control at Rivage, but he recovered quickly and got a final chance on another set of tyres. He made the most of it for a lap of 1m 46.091s to push team mate Lewis Hamilton down a place on the grid. The Englishman lapped in 1m 46.406s.

Robert Kubica was in fine form for BMW Sauber, lapping his F1.07 in 1m 46.996s to take fifth place, but after his engine change this morning he will start 15th. Nico Rosberg continued his fine recent form with sixth place for Williams in 1m 47.334s, to head BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld (1m 47.409s), Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 47.524s), Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 47.798s) and Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen (1m 48.505s).

This is the eighth pole for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro out of fourteen qualifying sessions held so far this season, set for the third time by Kimi Raikkonen. This is the thirteenth time that a Ferrari driver will start the Belgian Grand Prix from the number one slot. Kimi took his career pole total to 14, while the Scuderia now has a total of 194 to its name.

Jean Todt: "It was a very exciting and closely contested qualifying session in which, for the first time this season, two Ferraris took the top two places, separated by a very small time difference on what is probably the nicest circuit on the Formula 1 calendar. They say a good day coming can be seen from the morning and already yesterday, we saw that we could be competitive and today confirmed that impression. This result was, in part, also due to Shell's technical contribution. Having said that, we have only taken a small step so far this weekend.
 

"The most important one comes tomorrow when the deciding factors will be the same as ever - strategy, reliability and the work of the team and the driver. Today's great result is particularly satisfying for me and for various reasons, I would be very happy to see it repeated tomorrow."

Kimi Raikkonen: "Obviously, I am happy with this pole position, obtained on one of my favourite tracks and also happy with the overall result for the team. On my first run in Q3, the car was very good but I felt something was not quite right with the rear end on my in lap. Apparently everything was okay and so we decided to continue with the second run. Even if it wasn't perfect, it was still good enough to improve and take pole. The balance of the car was good right from this morning. Usually, we are quicker in the race than in qualifying. Tomorrow we will try and do our best to get a good result."

Felipe Massa: "It was a good qualifying. My second quick lap in Q3 was perfect right up to the final corner, where I locked my wheels and might have lost just enough time to cost me pole. But second place is a good one to start from for the race. I hope to have a good race tomorrow. Here, we are back to being competitive at the highest level and we have a package that can allow us to fight for the win."

Luca Baldisserri: "It's great to be back with an all red front row on the grid. Today we were competitive but we are aware that tomorrow we can expect a long hard race against very strong opposition. We have a very good package and significant help from our technical partners, starting with Shell."

Qualifying details: K. Raikkonen: 1st 1.45.994 9 laps chassis 262; F. Massa: 2nd 1.46.011 9 laps chassis 263; Weather: air temperature 16/17 °C, track temperature 24 °C, partially cloudy.