Motor Sport: Kimi Raikkonen narrowly pipped Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa to pole position for tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix by just seventeen thousandths of a second.
Just six days after being trounced on home turf by the McLarens in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the Maranello marque were back on the pace around the seven kilometre Spa circuit.
Lewis Hamilton, who currently leads the world championship by just three points from McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso, will start fourth on the grid behind the Spaniard.
It is the third time this season Raikkonen has qualified on pole for Ferrari, and 13th of his career, with the Finn now firmly in the driving seat for a third successive victory on this track.
Raikkonen currently trails Hamilton by 18 points, with Massa 23 adrift, and another one-two here from the duo — as in Turkey three weeks ago — will keep them firmly in the hunt.
Meanwhile, McLaren got off lightly with a record $100 million fine and the loss of their 2007 constructors' points for spying on Ferrari, according to FIA president Max Mosley.
"It is a very modest penalty indeed," the International Automobile Federation head told reporters. "They are extremely lucky that we didn't quite simply say: You have polluted the championship in 2007, you have probably polluted it in 2008 . . . so you had better stay out of the championship until 2009 if you are still around.
"When history looks back at this, maybe that is what we are reproached with: Not with doing too much but with maybe doing too little."
Mosley said the effect of the fine would be merely to bring McLaren's budget down to the same level as some of the other top teams in the paddock.
"It is absurd to say it is unfair or disproportionate," he declared.
Mosley said half of the money would be distributed to the other teams while the FIA planned to use the rest to create a fund to help bring on young drivers worldwide.
Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone said that Mercedes-powered McLaren, who had been leading Ferrari in the championship, had narrowly escaped a two-year exclusion at an FIA hearing in Paris on Thursday.
"It really was a genuine possibility," he said. "A few of us sort of battled on and campaigned for the fine instead."