Record lap puts Raikkonen on pole in Italy

Team mate Sebastian Vettel was second fastest to complete the front-row sweep for Sunday’s race, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton third for Mercedes.

Raikkonen’s stunning lap of one minute 19.119 seconds, at an average speed of 263.587 kph, smashed the track record of 1:19.525 set by Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya for Williams at Monza in 2004.

“I couldn’t think of a better place to be on pole,” said Raikkonen.

It was the Finn’s first pole position since Monaco last year, the 18th of his career and Ferrari’s first at Monza since 2010.

The 38-year-old, who last won a race with Lotus in 2013, also became the oldest pole-sitter since Britain’s Nigel Mansell in 1994.

Ferrari’s last front-row lockout at Monza was in 2000, when Michael Schumacher and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello were first and second on the grid.

Vettel, 17 points behind Hamilton with eight races left, thought he had the pole and exclaimed ‘Yes!’ as he crossed the line only to be told he was second fastest to his team mate.

“We speak later,” he said.

“Clearly I wasn’t happy but I don’t tell you why,” explained the German when asked by reporters later what he planned to discuss.

“To be honest it was not a tidy lap and I think the other laps were actually better ones,” said Vettel. “I lost time pretty much everywhere.

“It was just not a good lap and not good enough. (I’m) lucky to get second and not third, but it’s just not good enough.”

Hamilton, who was booed by some of the Ferrari fans, congratulated Raikkonen.

“We knew they had the pace this weekend and it was going to take something special to catch them. It’s generally been that gap all weekend. It was amazing how intense it was and that’s how racing should be,” said the Briton.