Ferrari's [ Images ] world champion and Formula One leader Kimi Raikkonen [ Images ] took his first pole position of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix [ Images ] on Saturday ahead of home hero Fernando Alonso [ Images ].

The Spanish crowd gave Alonso a standing ovation after Renault's [ Images ] double world champion pulled out all the stops at his home circuit only to be pipped by the Finn.

Force India's [ Images ] Giancarlo Fisichella [ Images ] and Adrian Sutil [ Images ] will start 19th and 20th respectively.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa [ Images ], winner of the previous race in Bahrain, qualified third with BMW Sauber's [ Images ] Polish driver Robert Kubica [ Images ] fourth.

McLaren's [ Images ] Lewis Hamilton [ Images ], last year's overall championship runner-up, shared the third row with Finnish team mate Heikki Kovalainen [ Images ].

Raikkonen will be the clear favourite for Sunday's race, given that the driver on pole position has won at the Circuit de Catalunya for the past seven years in a row.

The Finn is the fourth different driver in four races to take pole position.

1. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1 min 21.813 secs
2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:21.904
3. Felipe Massa (Brazil [ Images ]) Ferrari 1:22.058
4. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:22.065
5. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:22.096
6. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1:22.231
7. Mark Webber [ Images ] (Australia [ Images ]) RedBull - Renault 1:22.429
8. Jarno Trulli [ Images ] (Italy [ Images ]) Toyota [ Images ] 1:22.529
9. Nick Heidfeld [ Images ] (Germany [ Images ]) BMW Sauber 1:22.542
10. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:22.699
11. Rubens Barrichello [ Images ] (Brazil) Honda 1:21.049
12. Kazuki Nakajima [ Images ] (Japan [ Images ]) Williams - Toyota 1:21.117
13. Jenson Button [ Images ] (Britain) Honda 1:21.211
14. Timo Glock [ Images ] (Germany) Toyota 1:21.230
15. Nico Rosberg [ Images ] (Germany) Williams - Toyota 1:21.349
16. Sebastien Bourdais [ Images ] (France [ Images ]) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:21.724
17. David Coulthard [ Images ] (Britain) RedBull - Renault 1:21.810
18. Sebastian Vettel [ Images ] (Germany) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:22.108
19. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India - Ferrari 1:22.516
20. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Ferrari 1:23.224
21. Anthony Davidson [ Images ] (Britain) Super Aguri - Honda 1:23.318
22. Takuma Sato [ Images ] (Japan) Super Aguri - Honda 1:23.496