Raikkonen: 'Pole is no guarantee for Sunday'

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Kimi Raikkonen might be the oldest driver on the current Formula 1 grid, but this Finn certainly still knows how to fly.

The last time that he was on pole position was in June 2008, nearly nine years ago, when he took the top spot for the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours. That day he just saw off his then-Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa and Renault's Fernando Alonso.

Fast forward through 129 races and he's back on pole again at last. Once again it's his Ferrari team mate - this time Sebastian Vettel - who will be starting alongside him. And as for Alonso, he's several thousand miles away going around in superfast circles.

Not surprisingly, all this meant that the 37-year-old former world champion was the most upbeat he's been all season.

"Things went well," he said after qualifying. "We had a good timing when we went out and I felt good, so I was able to push.

"It was quite a nice, straightforward qualifying.

"I'm happy for myself and happy for the team. Obviously we have two cars at the front tomorrow so we'll make the most out of it."

Raikkonen on Monaco pole after nightmare qualifying for Hamilton

Of course, unbridled enthusiasm is not Raikkonen's way, and he was still wary about getting carried away by today's success.

"Obviously [pole] is the best place to start tomorrow, but it doesn't guarantee anything. Nonetheless I'll happily take it," he said.

"If you look you can always go a bit faster here and there but that's normal. It's a never ending story like that.

"We've been struggling a little bit in certain places and been working to try to figure it out. Qualifying was better. By no means perfect but I think it's never going to be perfect, but it was good enough.

Today's success could also result in a big change in Raikkonen's occasionally strained relations with the Ferrari management.

"I'm really happy for him because he deserved it," said team principal Maurizio Arrivabene. "The champion is coming out.

"I'm happy. We've turned a page now," he added. "But we have to remember the last race in Sochi, to be careful and think about tomorrow.

"We are going now to the brief to work on tomorrow already."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.