Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen will start tomorrow’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix with a commanding pole position with his new Ferrari team.

The fastest driver in Formula One lived up to his expectation with a stunning time around the Albert Park circuit. The Finn recorded a time of one minute, 26.072 seconds, edging out his main championship rival Fernando Alonso by four-tenths of a second.

He thus became the first debutant Ferrari driver to take pole position since Juan Manuel Fangio back in 1956.

“Today we spent time getting a good set-up on car,” Raikkonen said. “For one lap it was still not ideal, not for me at least, but the main thing is it was quick enough. We have a good race package, so I am more confident for the race than for qualifying. This can be quite a funny race, but we’ll do our best and hope to win.”

Even though the double world champion was out-paced in both session one and two in the one-hour qualifying round, Alonso did the job to qualify his McLaren in second place, pushing the impressive Lewis Hamilton down to fourth – with BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld just in front of the GP2 champion with P3.

Despite that, Hamilton’s performance in his first weekend as a Formula One driver is superb. He has been the faster driver in the McLaren MP4-22 and he even forced his team-mate to push extra hard to stay ahead. A possible podium is on the cards in the race.

As for the Spaniard, he is still searching for that confidence in the car but is happy to line up on the front row. Alonso said: “I think at end we are there and to start where we are is fantastic news for the team. They have made a huge step forward since last year and we need say thanks to team. I really hope it will be a close race tomorrow, and it can be very interesting; we have been very competitive all weekend.”

It seems BMW Sauber are the major surprise in Formula One 2007, with Heidfeld in a fantastic third with Robert Kubica in fifth. It goes to show that the team’s impressive winter testing performance wasn’t a one off and it is a sign of genuine pace with the new F1.07 chassis.

Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella will start in sixth ahead of hometown hero Mark Webber in the Red Bull. And against expectations, came the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher respectively. Both of them had initial dramas: Trulli inadvertently dragged a jack all down the pit lane and then on to the track when he first went out, for which the team were subsequently fined €2000; Schumacher had a tyre problem and had to creep back to the pits before getting going again.

And rounding up the top ten is Super Aguri’s Takamo Sato. Yes, the Japanese team and driver went though into the shoot-out pole position session beating the works Honda team in the process!

It is an amazing achievement by Super Aguri. A year ago, the team was lucky enough to make the grid and had to borrow a show car from a local shopping mall to take part in the event. Now, the Japanese team are more competitive, despite running a controversial ‘shared’ chassis based on the 2006 Honda car. Sato’s team-mate, Anthony Davidson failed to make through the third session. Nevertheless, the Honda B-team is faster and more balanced than the Honda A-team. Both Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello struggled in qualifying and will line up in a disappointing P14 and P17 respectively.

As for Felipe Massa, in the other Ferrari, the Brazilian suffered a gearbox problem in the second session. It was a shame that he couldn’t challenge Kimi for pole position, as that would be something to behold! Instead, we will see an exciting charge from P16 in the Grand Prix.

So an exciting start to the first round of the new season with the two main championship contenders up front. Can Kimi Raikkonen win his first race for Ferrari? Can Fernando Alonso start off his championship defence in style or will his new team-mate Lewis Hamilton achieve the ultimate prize of winning his first Grand Prix?

The grid for the Australian Grand Prix

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:26.072
2. ALONSO McLaren 1:26.493
3. HEIDFELD BMW 1:26.556
4. HAMILTON McLaren 1:26.755
5. KUBICA BMW 1:27.347
6. FISICHELLA Renault 1:27.634
7. WEBBER Red Bull 1:27.934
8. TRULLI Toyota 1:28.404
9. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:28.692
10. SATO Super Aguri 1:28.871
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:26.909
12. ROSBERG Williams 1:26.914
13. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:26.964
14. BUTTON Honda 1:27.264
15. WURZ Williams 1:27.393
16. MASSA Ferrari 1:26.712
17. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:27.679
18. SPEED Toro Rosso 1:28.305
19. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:28.579
20. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:29.267
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:29.339
22. ALBERS Spyker 1:31.932

Sébastien Loeb repeated his 2006 rally victory with a dominant display in his new Citroen C4.

The reigning champion finished with a comfortable margin (around 56 seconds) ahead of championship rivals Marcus Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen.

Loeb’s victory on the Rally of Mexico means that he and co-driver Daniel Elena have now notched thirty WRC victories.

“For Daniel and me, this is our 30th WRC win together. That’s obviously nice but I’m especially pleased with our run here this weekend and what it promises for the upcoming rallies.”

“The car was really good,” added Loeb. “Since Monte Carlo we were waiting for this event as the first gravel rally of the season. We have to wait for this rally to see how it performed. The car was perfect. No problems and a good feeling.”

Early leader Petter Solberg was disappointed to retire in the new 2007 Subaru, but the team were happy by the performance of the brand new Impreza, with Solberg’s team-mate Chris Atkinson running in the top three for most of day one.

The next round in the WRC is Portugal at the end of the month. Can anybody stop Loeb now that he is back in front?

A new Formula One season is upon us and with new drivers joining new teams; this year’s championship could be the most unpredictable in the 56 years of the sport. Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher has left Formula One after announcing his retirement late last year. His presence will be sadly missed on the grid this season but two likely drivers could take over the role as the greatest – Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Both superstars have switched teams for 2007, with the double world champion joining Team McLaren Mercedes and the Finn joining Scuderia Ferrari respectively. It will be fascinating to see how well these two drivers will get on racing in their new cars, the MP4-22 and F2007 in this 17-race calendar.

In addition, this year’s grid will look very different to 2006. Most of the top teams are welcoming new drivers, including some top driving talent from the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen and Adrian Sutil.

So what’s new in F1 2007? What are the new rules and regulations and who will come out on top? All this will be revealed in this in-depth preview to the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship.

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The Honda F1 Racing team have unveiled a new livery for the 2007 season, a picture of the planet earth.

The Japanese manufacturer are moving away from traditional advertising featuring sponsor logos on the car. With this ‘green’ themed RA107, the team are hoping to raise awareness on the environmental issues facing the world.

A new website has been devised for those interested in supporting the idea adopted by Honda. By making a donation to myearthdream.com supporters can pledge to the ‘lifestyle change’ to be more environmentally friendly, and in return their name will be featured on the car and the Honda F1 website.

Music giant Universal Music and sports drink firm Gatorade are the first to sign up to this exciting new concept, while other companies – including Fila, IBM, Instron, Oliver Sweeney, Perkin Elmer, Showa Denko, TUV and GF Agie Charmilles – have also joined up.

“Climate change is probably the single biggest issue facing the global community and F1 is not immune from it,” said Nick Fry, Honda F1 team boss.

“On the contrary, we believe that F1 with its huge global profile and cutting edge technology can play an important role in not only highlighting the issues but also playing our part in developing solutions.

“In addition, the FIA recognises the opportunity for F1 to showcase innovative technologies for the benefit of society for the long term. For example, by 2009, devices for energy recovery will be in place on the cars.

“So we at Honda F1 are proud to dedicate our car to the environmental challenge. We believe that practical solutions can stem directly from engineers working on our F1 programme.”

Fry added that the team’s plan for the year would not only raise awareness of global issues but also encourage the general public to do more to help the situation.

“First and foremost, we are a race team and F1 is very much a team sport. We achieve our racing objectives only by working together, and parallels can be drawn with the way that we must all join together to address the environmental challenge.

“We hope that in raising awareness and highlighting the issues we will encourage members of the public to come together and help take on the challenge of climate change.”

Honda F1 Racing chairman Yasuhiro Wada added: “Honda constantly strives to be innovative in both its technology and its thinking and to sincerely respond to the demands of customers and society.

“Honda has always made great efforts to contribute to the preservation of the environment in its corporate activity.

“We hope this new initiative for Honda in F1 will help to further stimulate awareness and interest across the world for these important environmental issues.”

Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen led home the first Ford 1-2-3 finish since 1979 by beating Marcus Grönholm and Henning Solberg in the second round of the World Rally Championship.

Hirvonen dominated the Rally of Norway from start to finish – taking his second victory of his WRC career. His maiden victory came in Australia last year, when Sébastien Loeb was absent with a broken arm and Grönholm crashed on the first day, but this time the Finn had to battle against the former champions.

“It’s been a fantastic rally,” said Hirvonen. “I rate this higher than Australia, because we were leading from stage one and we were really fighting with Marcus and Sébastien.”

Grönholm now leads the world championship with his second place finish in the Ford Focus. As for Sébastien Loeb, the Frenchman finished in a disappointing 14th position, after making some mistakes in the event.

Finishing in third was Henning Solberg, who managed to hold off his younger brother Petter.