First blood goest to Kimi at Imola

Kimi Raikkonen edged out world championship leader Fernando Alonso by a whisker to take top spot in first qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola today.

Raikkonen’s lap of one minute 19.886 seconds in his McLaren was just 0.003secs faster than Renault driver Alonso, who ended the session second.

World champion Michael Schumacher has enjoyed a promising weekend so far and he continued to give Ferrari’s home fans hope of a turnaround by claiming third, 0.0374secs adrift of Raikkonen.

Jenson Button, who took pole position last year at Imola, was unable to repeat his practice pace in qualifying and ended the session fifth.

Mark Webber was fourth for Williams while Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was sixth. Red Bull continue to struggle for pace and David Coulthard could only manage 14th.

Vitantonio Liuzzi was the first driver on track as he did not take part in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Liuzzi, who has been drafted in to replace Christian Klien at Red Bull, completed a tidy lap but like Coulthard found the going tough and ended the session 16th.

Alex Wurz is also preparing for his first race of the season and he settled in quickly as a McLaren race driver.

The Austrian, who is standing in for the injured Juan Pablo Montoya, suffered as one of the first drivers on track but put in a fine performance to take eighth.

Giancarlo Fisichella was another driver out early after retirement in Bahrain and the Renault driver made a mistake which costtime, leaving him down in 15th and facing a mountain to climb if he is to challenge for his second victory of the season.