Kimi Raikkonen sounded an ominous warning to World Championship rival Fernando Alonso after snatching pole position for the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix - then insisted there is plenty more to come from McLaren.
They dominated practice at the new Istanbul Otodrom and Raikkonen, who won last time out in Hungary, maintained that form in qualifying to steal top spot on the grid for tomorrow's race by over a quarter of a second.
The Renault duo of Giancarlo Fisichella and Alonso will give chase from second and third but Raikkonen has warned he will be even faster come race day.
The Finn claims he took it easy on his qualifying run, which came after five rivals - including world champion Michael Schumacher - ruined their laps with mistakes.
He said: "I thought we had a little bit in hand. In the morning I went off at corner eight so I knew it was a little bit tricky. I relaxed a little. I knew that I was quick enough in the first part.
"We will try to win, that's the only aim for us - that's the way to get the championship."
He added: "I am pretty confident we have a good car. I think in qualifying the car was not as good as it will be in the race. We had some difficulty getting the tyres warned up so I am pretty confident. We will try to score as many points for the team as we can to fight for the world championship."
Alonso, who leads the championship by 26 points with six races remaining, will not give up easily though and has designs himself on becoming Formula One's first winner in Turkey.
The Spaniard recovered from the handicap of starting relatively early in qualifying - which costs time on a dusty track - to claim a second-row start.
He was delighted with that effort, especially as it means he starts on the clean side of the grid - with the dirtier side, which is off the normal racing line, likely to cause slow getaways.
"I think tomorrow we have a good chance to be on the podium and hopefully fighting for the win," said Alonso, who suffered a rare pointless race in Hungary three weeks ago. "The car is competitive here as you saw."
He added: "This is not like Hungary, we came back here in the right direction and tomorrow hopefully we can fight with the McLarens. It is not easy to manage, but at the moment we are thinking to beat McLaren and to beat Kimi."
Juan Pablo Montoya took fourth to give Renault and McLaren a clean sweep of the top four while Toyota's Jarno Trulli was fifth, ahead of the Williams pair of Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber. Felipe Massa was eighth for Sauber.
They formed the majority of the few drivers able to complete trouble-free laps as the challenging new Istanbul Otodrom - which Bernie Ecclestone claims 'sorts the men from the boys' - wreaked havoc.
Michael Schumacher was the most high-profile casualty. The most experienced driver on the grid spun in turn 10 and will start a downcast 17th.
"With the performance during the weekend so far it is not really optimistic for tomorrow," the Ferrari driver said. "I just didn't manage the corner, I can't say exactly what was the reason."
Jenson Button also made a mistake and starts 13th in his BAR-Honda, with David Coulthard 12th for Red Bull.
