MONZA (Italy), Sept 8: Double world champion Fernando Alonso took pole position alongside team mate Lewis Hamilton on Saturday in an all-McLaren front row for the Italian Grand Prix.

In a slap in the face for title rivals Ferrari before the Italian team’s home race, the Spaniard gave troubled championship leaders McLaren a timely boost after a week dominated by a spying controversy.

Hamilton, the 22-year-old British rookie who leads Alonso by five points with five races remaining and faces a tough battle to get past his team-mate on Sunday, missed out by 0.037 seconds.

Despite knowing that their championship hopes could be extinguished at a hearing in Paris next week into allegations that McLaren benefited from leaked Ferrari technical information, both drivers managed to put the off-track tension to one side on a sunny afternoon at the Milanese circuit.

Brazilian Felipe Massa, winner of the previous race in Turkey, gave the Ferrari fans some cheer with third place ahead of BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.

Kimi Raikkonen, preparing for his first race appearance in Italy as a Ferrari driver since stepping into the shoes of retired seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, qualified fifth in the spare car after crashing heavily in final practice.

Massa is 15 points off Hamilton with Finland’s Raikkonen one further back.

The pole was Alonso’s first since Monaco in May, although he was stripped of another in Hungary last month for impeding Hamilton, and the 16th of his career.

Briton Jenson Button lifted Honda’s hopes in a miserable season with 10th place on the starting grid.

Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella had a disappointing day, slumping to his worst qualifying performance of the year in his home race. He will start in 15th place.

Qualifying results: 1. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren one minute 21.997 seconds; 2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:22.034; 3. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:22.549; 4. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:23.174; 5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:23.183; 6. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:23.446; 7. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault 1:24.102; 8. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams–Toyota 1:24.382; 9. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:24.555; 10. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1:25.165; 11. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull–Renault 1:23.166; 12. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1:23.176; 13. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams–Toyota 1:23.209; 14. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri–Honda 1:23.274; 15. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 1:23.325; 16. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso–Ferrari 1:23.351; 17. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri–Honda 1:23.749; 18. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 1:23.787; 19. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso–Ferrari 1:23.886; 20. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull–Renault 1:24.019; 21. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker–Ferrari 1:24.699; 22. Sakon Yamamoto (Japan) Spyker–Ferrari 1:25.084.—Reuters