France F1 2008 - Qualifying : POLE NO 200 FOR THE REDS

World champion Kimi Raikkonen handed Ferrari their 200th pole position in a front row sweep for the Italian team at the French Grand Prix on Saturday.

His Brazilian teammate, Felipe Massa, who took pole at Magny-Cours last year, was second fastest to secure the Italian team’s third one-two in qualifying this season. The pole, the 16th of Raikkonen’s GP career, left the Finn perfectly placed to repeat his 2007 victory at the circuit.

Poland’s Robert Kubica, the championship leader for BMW-Sauber after his victory in Canada earlier this month, qualified seventh but will start sixth because of a 10-place penalty imposed on McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton, who picked up the punishment after crashing into Raikkonen in the Canadian Grand Prix pit lane, qualified third and will start 13th. His demotion left Renault’s double world champion Fernando Alonso sharing the second row with Italian Jarno Trulli in a Toyota.

McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen moved up to fifth. Kubica leads Hamilton and Massa by four points in the championship with Raikkonen a further three adrift after seven races. ‘‘It’s the best possible chance to win the race from the first place and the car has been good all weekend, so hopefully we will get some good points here,’’ said Raikkonen. ‘‘It’s going to be a long race. I'm pretty sure we have a good race car but as we’ve seen before, anything can happen.’’ Raikkonen failed to finish in Canada after the pit lane collision and drew a blank in Monaco after running into the back of Adrian Sutil’s Force India while in fifth place. But he has never failed to finish in France.