Kimi Raikkonen, defending world champion, will start from the front of the grid at the French Grand Prix after qualifying in one minute and 16.449 seconds to secure his second pole position of the season and first at the Magny-Cours circuit.

The 28-year-old Finn outpaced his nearest rival and team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa by just 0.041 seconds, and took the 200th pole position in Ferrari team history.

"It's the best possible chance to win the race from the first place and the car has been good all weekend, so hopefully we will get some good points here," said Raikkonen, who has failed to score in his two previous starts.

"It's going to be a long race. I'm pretty sure we have a good race car but as we've seen before, anything can happen."

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes driver, was third fastest in qualifying, but he will be relegated 10 places to 13th on the grid as a punishment for his Canadian Grand Prix pit lane crash where he ignored a red light.

The Briton, who had led the championship before his Montreal gaffe, blamed himself for errors on the exit to turn seven on both of his quick laps that he said had cost him "a good chunk of time".

"It's quite a disappointing qualifying, I think, for me. I have to apologise to the team, I didn't do a great job at all," said the 23-year-old Briton.

"I was pushing and trying to get the best out of the car and I did in most areas except that one. We just missed out but we will push very hard tomorrow.

"If we can pull off some points from this weekend it will be a major bonus."

Minor grid placings

Spaniard Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest for Renault, a result that means the double world champion will move up to third with Italian Jarno Trulli alongside him on the grid for Toyota.

Finn Heikki Kovalainen, Hamilton's McLaren team-mate, was sixth and will start fifth ahead of Pole Robert Kubica, the championship leader, in his BMW Sauber, Australian Mark Webber and his Red Bull team-mate Briton David Coulthard, and German Timo Glock who completed the top ten fastest times for Toyota.

Raikkonen's, pole was the 16th of his career and gives him a great chance of bouncing back in the drivers' championship in which he is currently fourth behind Kubica, Hamilton and Massa.

The afternoon qualifying session began under blue skies with the temperature rising to 27 degrees Celsius in the air and 45 degrees on the track.

Early exits

The first part-session saw the swift elimination of German Adrian Sutil and his Force India team-mate Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who will fill the back row of the grid, behind the two Hondas of Briton Jenson Button and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello.

Also knocked out was Japanese Kazuki Nakajima of Williams who will start from 16th on the grid after running into traffic on his hot lap.

The second mini-session saw the departure from the fray of Nakajima's team-mate German Nico Rosberg, meaning that the rear three rows were in pairs of Williams, Honda and Force India.

Also out were local hero Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais of Toro Rosso and his team-mate German Sebastian Vettel who will share the seventh row of the grid.

German Nick Heidfeld of BMW Sauber and Brazilian Nelson Piquet, who was fastest for Renault in the morning's final practice session, were also unable to progress to the top-ten shootout in the final session.