Length: 5.141 km
Number of Laps: 60 (308.355 Km)
Best Lap: M. Schumacher - 1'18''731 (2004, Ferrari)
Record Pole: K. .Raikkonen - 1'18''233 (2004, Mclaren)
2005 Pole: F. Alonso - 1'19''905 (Renault)
2005 Podium: JP. Montoya - F. Alonso - K. Raikkonen

Surprises were many in the opening session as among those to miss out were, amazingly, home hero Jenson Button, who was called in to the weighbridge towards the close of the session, leaving him no time to set another time.

Mark Webber was also eliminated, the first time the Australian has been in that position, and put it down to ‘not being fast enough’ in typically honest fashion.

The remaining runners knocked out included the supremely unlucky Jarno Trulli, whose Toyota erupted in a cloud of smoke before he could set a time, the two Super Aguri’s of Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny, and Christijan Albers in the Midland.

The second session saw times tumble, and was extremely tightly contested. The remaining Midland of Tiago Monteiro was eliminated at this point, as were the two Toro Rosso’s of Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi, and the Red Bulls of David Coulthard and Christian Klien.

Coulthard believed he had his fastest lap baulked by Montoya, and was seen discussing the situation in the McLaren pit. It is not known as yet whether an official protest has been made, although penalties for blocking have been quite harsh of late.

The final ‘shoot out’ began with the usual ten minutes of fuel burning, and it was the last few minutes that saw all the action. Quite clearly this was a fight between the Renaults, the Ferraris and the amazing Kimi Raikkonen who seemed to have his McLaren hooked up beautifully here.

At first it appeared that Michael and Ferrari had it covered, but that was before Alonso turned up the heat and blitzed the Germans time by three tenths, just seconds before Raikkonen, too, took chunks out of Michaels time. Raikkonen was quite stunning in the middle and last sectors, but lost out in the first.

Massa and Fisichella, fourth and fifth, were not in the hunt for pole, and neither was Rubens Barrichello, although the Brazilian did well to put the Honda in sixth place.

The fourth row will be Ralf Schumacher and the lacklustre Juan Pablo Montoya, who simply did not seem as quick as Raikkonen today.

That the BMW-Saubers of Heidfeld and Villeneuve will start ninth and tenth is somewhat indicative of a heavy fuel load. Both drivers time in the final session were some three quarters of a second away from the pace they had shown previously.