Spain's double world Formula One champion Fernando Alonso threw down the gauntlet to McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton by racing to pole position for the Italian Grand Prix here on Saturday.
It was the 17th pole of Alonso's career and came as a timely boost as he attempts to close a five-point gap on Hamilton in the drivers championship with five races remaining.
Alonso clocked a best time of one minute and 21.997 seconds to outpace Hamilton by just four-tenths of a second.
Brazilian Felipe Massa was third for Ferrari ahead of Nick Heidfeld of Germany in the leading BMW Sauber. Finn Kimi Raikkonen was fifth in the second Ferrari and Poland's Robert Kubica sixth in the second BMW.
Alonso said he felt "pleasantly surprised" by the speed of his McLaren, which handed him only his second pole of the year and 17th of his career.
His last 'pole', in Budapest at the Hungarian Grand Prix, was taken from him by the race stewards following an internal team dispute.
"I did not expect us to be so quick so it is a pleasant surprise for me and the team," said Alonso.
"It is looking very good, but we have to concentrate and complete the job in the race on Sunday.
"I have had many second places on the grid this year, but this time I have pole and I must thank the team for a car that is extremely quick here this weekend. Hopefully tomorrow we carry that through.
"The team has been focussed in this race because the Turkey weekend was a disappointment for us. We were not quick enough there, but this is different and we have made a big step forward to regain the pace."
Hamilton applauded McLaren's one-two on the grid, and added: "I think we are capable of a very strong race performance so I am looking forward to that - we shall just have to see what happens at the start and then go from there.
"It was a good battle we had today and it was a good run from me. On the last run, I edged a little more from the car. We are one-two and that is great for the team."
Massa said: "It is obvious that the McLarens are very fast here and they have proved that, but we will do our best in the race. Nothing is won on a Saturday."
The session was run in warm, dry conditions under blue skies at the old Autodromo Nazionale in Monza's former royal park. The air temperature was 28 degrees Celsius and the track temperature was 33.
The first part of qualifying resulted in the removal of the slowest six cars and drivers. They were Japan's Sakon Yamamoto and his Spyker teammate German Adrian Sutil, veteran Briton David Coulthard, 36, in a Red Bull and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi in a Torro Rosso, German Ralf Schumacher in a Toyota and Takuma Sato of Japan in a Super Aguri.
The second part saw the field
reduced to the top ten only and the removal of German Sebastian Vettel, 20, in his Torro Rosso, a hugely-disappointed Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in a Renault, Briton Anthony Davidson in a Super Aguri, Austrian Alex Wurz in a Williams, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in his Honda and Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull.