Raikkonen on pole as Montoya spins off
Kimi Raikkonen fulfilled what he was expected to do by putting his McLaren on pole. Even with a mistake in the last corner he was 0.4 seconds faster than his closest competitor Button. Championship leader Alonso is on third leading his teammate Fisichella.
McLaren have displayed their dominance with what is without a doubt the fastest car of the field. Kimi did as expected and it seemed after two sectors that Montoya would be very very close to that time. However, just in the same corner where Kimi made his mistake, Juan Pablo oversteered on the kurb and hit the tire wall.
Jenson Button on his behalf put out what is in the B.A.R with no mistakes onto the front row.
Alonso was less satisfied as he braked a little bit too early in the first corner costing him as much as two tenths of a second according to the Spaniard. Both Renault drivers will probably be very happy that Montoya is not in front of them, both keeping in mind the Constructor's and Driver's Championships.
Fifth and first Bridgestone runner is world champion Michael Schumacher. He earlier noted to be very happy with the new aerodynamic package but will again face a hard fight to get on the podium.
Very much down the grid is Barrichello. Partly explaining the performance are his hard tires contrary to his teammate's soft Bridgestones. Rubens is the last man in front of Albers who leads his teammate and both Jordans.
Jordan are having a hard time as their B spec car is not reliable enough to race while the current version is a development of a car that is running there for several years. Karthikeyan added several mistakes on top of that and returned to the pitlane without setting a time.
The results are as follows:
1 K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:14.320
2 J. Button BAR 1:14.759
3 F. Alonso Renault 1:14.904
4 G. Fisichella Renault 1:14.927
5 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:15.006
6 M. Webber Williams 1:15.070
7 N. Heidfeld Williams 1:15.403
8 T. Sato BAR 1:15.501
9 J. Trulli Toyota 1:15.532
10 C. Klien Red Bull 1:15.635
11 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:15.679
12 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:15.689
13 F. Massa Sauber 1:16.009
14 J. Villeneuve Sauber 1:16.012
15 R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:16.230
16 C. Albers Minardi 1:17.519
17 R. Doornbos Minardi 1:18.313
18 T. Monteiro Jordan 1:18.599
19 JP. Montoya McLaren no time
20 N. Karthikeyan Jordan no time
