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Kimi Raikkonen grabs pole in Turkey

Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren Mercedes in action yesterday during a practice session ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul Park in Turkey. The Finlander claimed the pole position for today's F1 race. PHOTO: EPA

Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren-Mercedes claimed the pole for today's inaugural Turkish Grand Prix in an error-prone session that saw a half-dozen drivers slide off the new, twisting, dusty track.

Alongside will be Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault. His teammate and season-points leader, Fernando Alonso, who leads Raikkonen by 26 points in the season standings, heads the second row with Juan Pablo Montoya of McLaren alongside.

Jarno Trulli of Toyota and Nick Heidfeld of Williams-BMW will start from the third row.

It was Raikkonen's fifth pole this season and the eighth of his career. Raikkonen, who won the last race three weeks ago in Hungary, came out last in qualifying and clocked 1 minute, 26.797 seconds.

Raikkonen said the car set-up was changed after Friday practice, which made all the difference.

"We were quite confident, but on new circuits you really never know how it's going to be in qualifying because here it's quite dusty," Raikkonen said.

With two Renaults in the top three, Alonso seemed confident. He has won six times this season, with Raikkonen winning four.

"At the moment we are thinking to beat McLaren and beat Kimi," Alonso said. "We can do it sometimes -- sometimes, not. And the times we cannot do it, we have to think and still score points. Tomorrow we have a good chance with two Renaults in the top three."

Drivers struggled to stay on the 5.3km Istanbul Park track in Friday and Saturday practice. Qualifying was the same, run before a sparse crowd Saturday at the 130,000-capacity venue.

Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher of Ferrari failed to complete his lap after spinning out. Jacques Villeneuve of Sauber, the 1997 series champion, also spun off the track on his lap and failed to finish.

Both BAR-Honda drivers -- Jenson Button and Takuma Sato -- drove off the course and posted slow times. The car of Minardi's Robert Doornbos caught fire, and he also failed to post a time.

Asked why he went off, Schumacher replied: "I can't say exactly the reason. The wind was stronger. I took that into consideration, but maybe not enough."

"It is not really promising for tomorrow."

Raikkonen and Montoya were the quickest in yesterday's practice before qualifying. They were also among the quickest in Friday practice.

Schumacher was 14th in both practices yesterday, 1 1/2 seconds off behind the leaders.

It's unclear if passing will be easy on this new course. Tracks in Monaco and Hungary make passing almost impossible. Istanbul Park is a wide circuit with 14 turns -- eight left-handers and six to the right.

The position on the starting grid is critical in the 14th of 19 races this season. After 13, Alonso leads with 87 points, followed by Raikkonen (61), Schumacher (55), Trulli (36) and Montoya (34).

In this season's races, nobody has won starting from worse than No. 7 on the grid -- and that was Raikkonen in Canada.

In his four other starts from the pole this season, Raikkonen has won twice. He dropped out with mechanical problems in the two others. The Finn's two other victories came from starts in the first four rows.

Alonso has won the pole four times this season, and has won three times from that spot. In his three other victories, he has started somewhere in the first three rows.

Istanbul's counterclockwise circuit -- only one of three in F1 -- promises a few physical problems for drivers accustomed to more right than left.

"There are some fantastic corners and I think that, physically, it will be a hard race, especially on the neck muscles," Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello said.
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