Alonso faultless to pole
Fernando Alonso has displayed the potential of the new R25's updates by setting the fastest time ahead of Montoya and Fisichella. McLaren title challenger Kimi Raikkonen made a big mistake in the first corner and will be 5th on tomorrow's grid.
Because of his crash at Spa two weeks ago, Fisichella was the first man out on track and managed to put in a very solid and quick lap. It wasn't until Montoya came on track that the Roman's time was beaten. No driver but the last two runners could make a threat to Juan's time as they all slotted behind Fisichella.
Tension was high however as Fernando Alonso came out on track. The young Spaniard could not afford a mistake if he wants to claim the championship in Brazil. So he did not, and in his usual solid way he drove the updated R25 around 0.2s faster than Juan Pablo Montoya. That itself is already a good result as the team struggled to keep up with the McLarens in the last few races.
Last but not least on track, Kimi Raikkonen who had to basically set the fastest time if he wants to keep his chances to the championship open. That however, he failed to do, as immediately in the first corner he lost considerable time by missing his breaking point. The Finn blocked his inner front wheel seriously which may also be a serious handicap during tomorrow's race. In total he was 0.7s behind Alonso at the first sector time and even lost a few more hundreths in the other two sectors. As a result he is in 5th place and is facing a difficult task tomorrow.
In front of him is Jenson Button and behind he will find Christian Klien's Red Bull.
Surprise of the day is Tiago Monteiro in 13th place. After getting into the points at Spa and having a better qualifying slot today, the Portuguese proved that he is worth a drive in F1 and was more than a second faster than his Indian teammate.
Both Williams cars performed as expected with lowly 14th for Webber and 15th for Pizzonia. It seems like Pizzonia's new helmet will have to help him in tomorrow's race as it did not help very much today.
Behind the blue and white cars is Karthikeyan on his usual 17th place. On the same row however we find David Coulthard. Somehow the Scot was unable to get the most out of his Red Bull racer, the more because his teammate Klien is on 6th position. Differences in laptime are however small so maybe a few small mistakes could have made the difference. A different strategy is another explanation.
Second out today, Takuma Sato avoided having to take a lot of risks and did not set a qualifying time. The Japanese would have suffered a ten place penalty as a sanction of his crash with Michael Schumacher at Spa. It was therefore somehow useless to drive considering overtaking is a real possibility on the Sao Paulo venue.
Doornbos is somehow lucky with Sato's penalty so that he won't have to start from last position. The Dutchman spun off the track but did not damage the car. He was able to safely return to the pits without hindering his teammate Albers on his outlap. That Minardi driver was already faster underway than his teammate while he also did not commit any big errors.
Results are as follows:
1 F. Alonso Renault 1:11.988
2 JP. Montoya McLaren 1:12.145
3 G. Fisichella Renault 1:12.558
4 J. Button BAR 1:12.696
5 K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:12.781
6 C. Klien Red Bull 1:12.889
7 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:12.976
8 J. Trulli Toyota 1:13.041
9 F. Massa Sauber 1:13.151
10 R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:13.183
11 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:13.285
12 J. Villeneuve Sauber 1:13.372
13 T. Monteiro Jordan 1:13.387
14 M. Webber Williams 1:13.538
15 A. Pizzonia Williams 1:13.581
16 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:13.844
17 N. Karthikeyan Jordan 1:14.520
18 C. Albers Minardi 1:14.520
19 T. Sato BAR no time
20 R. Doornbos Minardi no time
