The 26-year-old Finn secured the prime grid position Saturday when he clocked the fastest time in the closing seconds of an extraordinary qualifying session for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Afterwards he said: "It was tough and I don't think it makes any difference about Michael - if you don't respect the rules that's what happens in racing.

"You get penalised for it. I don't know exactly what happened, but these things happen sometimes."

The 26-year-old Finn outpaced nearest rival Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari just when it seemed that the 25-year-old Latin American was about to secure his maiden pole.

The Brazilian, deprived of the competition from his senior Ferrari team-mate Schumacher in the third part of a qualifying hour which saw the seven-times champion and defending champion Fernando Alonso given two-seconds penalties, stood up to the pressure and delivered a fast time but was pipped at the post.

Massa wound up second ahead of his fellow-Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in a Honda and Briton Jenson Button, in the second Honda. Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa in a McLaren Mercedes-Benz was fifth and Australian Mark Webber sixth for Williams.

Raikkonen added: "Whatever anyone says, it is still a pole and I think I can have a very good race, but you never know what is going to happen in Formula One. I'll do my best and hope to win."

Massa said: "I don't think it will make any difference to me - I will go out and do my race and see what happens."

Barrichello said: "It is very difficult to overtake here, but I don't think it is all over yet for those guys. It will be tough for them, but I think it is still all to play for."

The session had been devalued beforehand, however, by the race stewards' decision to apply two-second penalties to both Alonso and Michael Schumacher for incidents during free practice, a move that meant whatever either driver achieved in the qualifying hour they were unlikely to qualify anywhere other than among the stragglers at the rear of the grid.

As it turned out, in the first mini-session, both men did enough even with two second penalties to advance to the second mini-session, leaving Vitantonio Liuzzi of Italy, in a Toro Rosso, German Nico Rosberg in his Williams, American Scott Speed in the second Toro Rosso, Takuma Sato of Japan in his Super Aguri Honda, Dutchman Chrisijan Albers in an Midland Toyota and Japan's Sakon Yamamoto in the second Aguri to fill places 17 to 22 on the grid.

The second part of the hour did eliminate them, even though as in the first part Schumacher was the fastest driver and Alonso was not far behind. In this session Schumacher clocked 1:18.875, the fastest 'real' lap of the weekend to date.

It meant that provisionally, when all the reshuffling was completed, Schumacher was 11th and Alonso 15th on the grid.

The weather conditions were the same as for most of the weekend - drab, miserable and overcast. The track temperature rose to 32 degrees Celsius, the air temperature hovered at 22 and the relative humidity was 58 per cent. ¡¡