Fernando Alonso (Getty Images)
FERNANDO ALONSO has threatened to dish out a five-race drubbing to team-mate Lewis Hamilton to retain his crown.
The world champion upped the stakes in their personal rivalry as he set his sights on winning all the remaining rounds of the world championship - starting with today's Italian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard shook off the growing rift with his McLaren team over Ferrarigate to grab pole position in the Italian giants' back yard.
Having dominated much of practice, Hamilton starts alongside him as the McLarens annexed the front row for the fourth time this season.
Alonso, five points behind his team-mate, was the only driver inside the 1min 22sec barrier.
But both McLarens were more than half a second quicker than Ferrari's Felipe Massa, third, with Nick Heidfeld fourth and Kimi Raikkonen, who crashed in practice, fifth.
"There are five races to go and I am treating them like five finals," said Alonso.
"I am looking at them all as being the last race of the championship. And I am out to win all five." But Hamilton warned he would give no quarter on the oldest and fastest circuit in the world championship.
"We both know what we have to do," he said. "We both want to finish and both want to win.
"We have to be especially careful at the first corner but both of us will be on the limit."
The spy saga gripping the sport seemed to have no effect on the 22-year-old once he climbed into the cockpit but he admitted: "We are all concerned what will happen next week. The team likes to do its fighting on the track."
But ahead of Thursday's hearing that could see McLaren banned from the sport for two years, Hamilton's boss Ron Dennis admitted he was facing the toughest test of his 41-year Grand Prix career.
He revealed he is not even sure his team will be racing at the next round in Belgium, three days after the hearing.
FIA investigators claim to have uncovered compromising emails between Alonso and test driver Pedro de la Rosa which the world champion was forced to hand over.
"We are trying to demonstrate where motor racing should be - and that is on the circuit," said Dennis. "We want to win the world championship and we think we are absolutely leading it fair and square."
He added: "This is the most extreme period I have ever been through.
"It is testing the character of everybody.
"If I thought it would further the company I would retire but I really don't think it's the right thing to do."
THE GRID
1. ALONSO McLaren
2. HAMILTON McLaren
3. MASSA Ferrari
4. HEIDFELD BMW
5. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
6. KUBICA BMW
7. KOVALAINEN Renault
8. ROSBERG Williams
9. TRULLI Toyota
10. BUTTON Honda
11. WEBBER Red Bull
12. BARRICHELLO Honda
13. WURZ Williams
14. DAVIDSON Super Aguri
15. FISICHELLA Renault
16. VETTEL Toro Rosso
17. SATO Super Aguri
18. SCHUMACHER Toyota
19. LIUZZI Toro Rosso
20. COULTHARD Red Bull
21. SUTIL Spyker
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker
HOW THEY STAND
Lewis Hamilton 84
Fernando Alonso 79
Felipe Massa 69
Kimi Raikkonen 68
Nick Heidfeld 47
Robert Kubica 29
Heikki Kovalainen 19
Giancarlo Fisichella 17
Alexander Wurz 13
Nico Rosberg 9
David Coulthard 8
Mark Webber 8
Jarno Trulli 7
Ralf Schumacher 5
Takuma Sato 4
Jenson Button 1
Sebastian Vettel 1
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Jonathan Pearce
ALEC STEWART
THE MOLE