Raikkonen Pleased with First Front Row Start

Finn Kimi Raikkonen was delighted with second place on the grid for tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix, his best ever qualifying performance since he joined Formula One at the start of last season.

"I am happy but still, we were very close on timings," said the Finn. "If you look at the sector times I just got a bit of traffic and sand on the mid sector on my last run, but it is still my best qualifying so far, so it is pretty good.

"The whole package seems to be pretty good here, the tyres and the car are working well, but there is still the question mark for the moment how the car and tyres will be in the race. So far we have been looking quite good here and I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be strong also, but we will see tomorrow."

Raikkonen, fastest in free practice on Friday and Saturday morning, was also right on the pace from the start in qualifying. The Finn had a scare with half the session gone when Frenchman Olivier Panis suffered a blown engine in the BAR and sent smoke billowing across the track.

Raikkonen radioed his team for information and barely lifted as he roared blind through the smoke at about 320 km/h.

"I asked which way I had to go as I could see absolutely nothing," said the driver, nicknamed 'The Iceman' by his own team, in his usual deadpan fashion. "I just saw the oil line and took the opposite side of the circuit and went through the smoke. Luckily there was nothing in front of me."

Raikkonen outqualified his more experienced teammate David Coulthard, who could only be sixth quickest after opting for a different tyre compound than the Finn.