FORMULA ONE

• Raikkonen leads Ferrari front row sweep

  
  

  Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (Sports Network) - Kimi Raikkonen captured the pole for Sunday's Belgium Grand Prix at the historic Spa-Francorchamps circuit. The No.6 Ferrari circled the 4.352-mile, 20-turn circuit in one minute, 45.994 seconds to take the top spot.

  The pole victory was Raikkonen's third of the season and 14th of his Formula One career.

  Starting on the front row with Raikkonen will be teammate Felipe Massa who posted a second-best time of 1:46.011.

  The McLaren pair of Fernando Alonso (1:46.091) and series points leader Lewis Hamilton (1:46.406) will make up row two.

  Alonso won the first session that saw the elimination of Sebastien Vettel, Rubens Barrichello, Takuma Sato, Adrian Sutil, Anthony Davidson and Sakon Yamamoto.

  Raikkonen won the second session setting up a great final qualifying session. Knocked out were Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher, David Coulthard, Jenson Button, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Alex Wurz.

  Then Raikkonen put up the winning time with a few minutes left in the session and no one could beat the time.

  Robert Kubica finished fifth quickest, but because of an engine change, he will be forced to start from 15th on the grid.

  With all that makes up the F1 championship, this year has even more going on, most of it off the track.

  Earlier this week, McLaren, leaders of the constructor's championship, were penalized $100 million and stripped of all constructor points.

  Drivers points were not involved which keeps the driver championship battle in tact.

  McLaren's rookie Hamilton is trying to ignore all the off-the-track happenings because he is in the middle of a titanic battle with his teammate for the driver title. Currently Hamilton leads the two-time World Champion Alonso by just three points, down from 14 points after the French Grand Prix.

  Alonso has won two of the last four events and finished second the last time the series visited the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in 2005.

  Raikkonen won the race in 2005 driving for McLaren. He is still alive in the drivers championship, just 18 points back after putting his Ferrari on the podium for three straight races. He has surpassed Massa as Ferrari's best chance to win the drivers title because Massa has falter badly in two of the last three events, finishing 13th at Hungary and 21st in Italy.

  The race is scheduled to drop the green flag on Sunday at 8 a.m. (et).

  09/15 09:14:52 ET