Kimi Raikkonen won the pole position for the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday, and both Ferrari cars positioned themselves ahead of championship leader Fernando Alonso.

It was the 11th pole position of Raikkonen's career and the third this season. Raikkonen also started first in the German and Hungarian GP's, although he is still yet to win this year.

``It could go either way tomorrow, but I'm quite confident,'' said Raikkonen, who finished third in Germany and smashed into the back of Vitantonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso in Hungary.

Raikkonen raced around the Monza circuit in one minute 21.484 seconds to move two-thousandths of a second ahead of Michael Schumacher before qualifying ended.

Schumacher was second in 1:21.486, and Nick Heidfeld was third in 1:21.653 for BMW-Sauber's best-ever qualifying result. Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa qualified fourth in 1:21.704 and Alonso was fifth at 1:21.829.

``If you look at where in particular Fernando is it's not too bad for us,'' Schumacher said. ``It would be nice to be on pole in our home grand prix but the important thing is to perform tomorrow.''

Schumacher trails Alonso by 12 points with four races remaining this season. Ferrari can overtake Alonso's Renault team in the constructors' standings, where Renault holds a two-point lead.

Schumacher is expected to announce his retirement after Sunday's race and Raikkonen is expected to be his replacement at Ferrari next season.

The right rear tire on Alonso's car shredded early in the final session of qualifying and some pieces of his Renault car came flying off. The Spaniard drove back into the pits with only a few rubber shreds hanging onto the steel cylinder of the wheel.

Alonso eventually returned to the track but wasn't able to catch the leaders.

A similar incident occurred to the Super Aguri of Sakon Yamamoto, who lost his left rear tire in the first 15-minute session. The session was delayed for eight minutes while workers cleaned up the track.

Red Bull's Christian Klien spun out and had his car towed off the track. Klien had already posted a time that qualified him for the second session but he was unable to return to the track and was the first driver eliminated in the middle phase.

``I spun off and the engine stopped,'' Klien said. ``It's frustrating, as we could have got a little higher than 16th.''

Heidfeld was happy with his result.

``I think that was the best qualifying lap I did all year,'' Heidfeld said. ``Starting third you at least want to finish third, but it's not going to be easy.''