Raikkonen snatches last-gasp Hungary pole

The 26-year-old Finn outpaced nearest rival Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari just when it seemed that the 25-year-old Latin American was about to secure his maiden pole.

The Brazilian, deprived of the competition from his senior Ferrari teammate German Michael Schumacher in the third part of a qualifying hour which saw the seven-time champion and defending champion Fernando Alonso given two-second penalties, stood up to the pressure and delivered a fast time but was pipped at the post.

Massa wound up second ahead of his fellow-Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in a Honda and Briton Jenson Button, in the second Honda. Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa in a McLaren Mercedes-Benz was fifth and Australian Mark Webber sixth for Williams.

The session had been devalued beforehand, however, by the race stewards' decision to apply two-second penalties to both Alonso and Michael Schumacher for incidents during free practice, a move that meant whatever either driver achieved in the qualifying hour they were unlikely to qualify anywhere other than among the stragglers at the middle of the grid.

As it turned out, in the first mini-session, both men did enough even with the penalties to advance to the second session, leaving Vitantonio Liuzzi, in a Toro Rosso, German Nico Rosberg in his Williams, American Scott Speed in the second Toro Rosso, Takuma Sato in his Super Aguri Honda, Dutchman Christijan Albers in an Midland Toyota and Japan's Sakon Yamamoto in the second Aguri to fill places 17 to 22 on the grid.

The second part of the hour did eliminate them, even though as in the first part Schumacher was the fastest driver and Alonso was not far behind. In this session Schumacher clocked 1:18.875, the fastest 'real' lap of the weekend to date.

It meant that provisionally, when all the reshuffling was completed, German Nick Heidfeld was 11th on the provisional grid, in his BMW Sauber, Michael Schumacher was 12th, Briton David Coulthard 13th in his Red Bull, Christian Klien behind him in the other Red Bull, Alonso 15th and Tiago Monteiro 16th for Midland.

The weather conditions were the same as for most of the weekend - drab and overcast. The track temperature rose to 32 degrees Celsius, the air temperature hovered at 22 and the relative humidity was 58 per cent.

Hungarian GP qualifying breakdown				Session 1			Session 2			Session 3
Pos	Driver	Team		Pos	Time	Lap	Pos	Time	Lap	Pos	Time	Lap
1.	Raikkonen	McLaren	M	2.	1:20.080	3	2.	1:19.704	3	1.	1:19.599	11
2.	Massa	Ferrari	B	1.	1:19.742	3	1.	1:19.504	3	2.	1:19.886	11
3.	Barrichello	Honda	M	6.	1:21.141	6	3.	1:19.783	5	3.	1:20.085	11
4.	Button	Honda	M	3.	1:20.820	6	4.	1:19.943	5	4.	1:20.092	11
5.	de la Rosa	McLaren	M	8.	1:21.288	3	5.	1:19.991	5	5.	1:20.117	11
6.	Webber	Williams	B	9.	1:21.335	6	6.	1:20.047	6	6.	1:20.266	11
7.	R.Schumacher	Toyota	B	5.	1:21.112	6	9.	1:20.243	6	7.	1:20.759	11
8.	Fisichella	Renault	M	10.	1:21.370	4	7.	1:20.154	6	8.	1:20.924	12
9.	Trulli	Toyota	B	11.	1:21.434	6	8.	1:20.231	6	9.	1:21.132	11
10.	Kubica	BMW	M	4.	1:20.891	3	10.	1:20.256	6	10.	1:22.049	12
11.	Heidfeld	BMW	M	12.	1:21.437	4	11.	1:20.623	6
12.	M.Schumacher	Ferrari	B	13.	1:21.440	3	12.	1:20.875	7
13.	Coulthard	Red Bull	M	7.	1:21.163	6	13.	1:20.890	5
14.	Klien	Red Bull	M	16.	1:22.027	4	14.	1:21.207	6
15.	Alonso	Renault	M	14.	1:21.792	6	15.	1:21.364	6
16.	Monteiro	Midland	B	15.	1:22.009	6	16.	1:23.767	3
17.	Liuzzi	Toro Rosso	M	17.	1:22.068	7
18.	Rosberg	Williams	B	18.	1:22.084	6
19.	Speed	Toro Rosso	M	19.	1:22.317	8
20.	Sato	Super Aguri	B	20.	1:22.967	6
21.	Albers	Midland	B	21.	1:23.146	6
22.	Yamamoto	Super Aguri	B	22.	1:24.016	6