The double F1 champion Fernando Alonso took pole position for the Italian Grand Prix after dominating qualifying at Monza on Saturday. This is the Spaniard’s 17th career pole position and the 13th in the 17-leg 2007 World championship.

His team colleague Lewis Hamilton, who is just five points ahead of the Spaniard in the Drivers' championship, came in second; Ferrari's Brazilian driver Felipe Massa will start third, BMW’s Nick Heidfeld will start fourth and Kimi Raikkonen fifth after he crashed during free practice on Saturday morning. The Finn appears to be fine, although his car was badly damaged.

Alonso's best was 1:22.054 and Hamilton was a tenth and a half behind on a track with temperatures rising as high as 86 degrees (30 Celsius).

The first to go for a timed lap was Super Aguri's Takuma Sato, who clocked 1:26.178 and he was about the only driver left on the track for a while after the rest returned to the garages.

Raikkonen’s accident was the hot topic of the day. The Finn had the luck of the Irish to escape after he snapped out of a sudden to the right under initial braking for the Ascari chicane, and then speared hard into the outer wall before crashing very heavily into the tire wall on the entry to the corner. Kimi got out of his tire buried car and calmly walked over the tire wall and headed back to the pits. The exact cause of the crash is still unknown.

Ferrari are now practically rebuilding the lucky Finn’s car while trying to figure out what went wrong, and the odds are clearly on McLaren side before to qualifying.

Provisional qualifying result ahead of the Italian F1 GP at Monza:

1 Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren - 1min21.997
2 Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren - 1min22.0
3 Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari - 1min22.549
4 Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW - 1min23.174
5 Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari - 1min23.183
6 Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW - 1min23.446
7 Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault - 1min24.102
8 Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - 1min24.382
9 Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota - 1min24.555
10 Jenson Button (Britain) Honda - 1min25.165
11 Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull - 1min23.166
12 Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda - 1min23.176
13 Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams - 1min23.209
14 Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri - 1min23.274
15 Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault - 1min23.325
16 Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso - 1min23.351
17 Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri - 1min23.749
18 Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota - 1min23.787
19 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso - 1min23.886
20 David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull - 1min24.019