In a session overshadowed by the Michelin crisis, Trulli used the prodigious power of the Toyota engine to great effect, powering around Indianapolis in 1:10.625, the fastest time recorded by anyone all weekend.

Having set his time roughly half way through the session, he then had to sit and watch as heavy- hitters came and went, but none came close to his time.

Finally, Kimi Raikkonen produced his lap.

Quicker in the second sector than Trulli, a nail biting lap saw Kimi bring the Mclaren home in 1:10.694, a whisker shy of Trulli.

Jenson Button continues his fine form in the BAR Honda by qualifiying third (1:11.277), while Giancarlo Fisichella emerged as quickest Renault driver (1:11.290) and will start alongside Button on row two.

Michael Schumacher, running safely on Bridgestone tyres, took his Ferrari around in 1:11.369, just outpacing the second Renault of World Championship leader Fernando Alonso (1:11.380)

Rubens Barrichello managed 1:11.431 to qualify seventh, but it is clear that Ferraris simply don't have the pace of the front running cars.

Alongside Barrichello in eighth place is Takuma Sato, the young Japanese two tenths slower than his BAR team-mate Button.

In fact, the relative similarity in pace of many of the cars here at Indianapolis is shown by the difference in qualifying times: from third place down to 14th place on the grid are covered by less than one second.

Mark Webber, easily the quickest of the two Williams-BMW drivers and very fast in the second sector, starts ninth, with Felipe Massa, so impressive last weekend in Canada, alongside him in the Sauber.

Juan Pablo Montoya will be disappointed to start only 11th, his qualifying run hampered by having to go 2nd following his Canada disqualification, and he lines up next to Jacques Villeneuve in the second Sauber.

Ricardo Zonta, deputising for the injured Ralf Schumacher, starts 13th, a good effort considering he ran first, and Christian Klien starts 14th in the quicker of the two Red Bull cars.

David Coulthard endured a difficult session, his car lacking grip like the sister car of Klien, and will start 16th, just behind a lacklustre Nick Heidfeld in the second Williams BMW.

The back two rows are Tiago Monteiro (Jordan) and Cristijan Albers (Minardi), and finally Narain Karthikeyan (Jordan) and Patrick Freisacher (Minardi) who both looked somewhat out of their depth around here.

So an interesting grid, with Toyota jubilant at their first pole position, but the dark cloud that is the Michelin crisis hangs over the race tomorrow.

Some Michelin runners, Renault chief among them, have made noises about withdrawing their entries should the new 'safe' rubber from Michelin not be permitted.

However, the situation is at something of a stalemate, as the FIA are unlikely to allow the use of the new tyres as to do so would contravene the regulations.

Should the Michelin runners withdraw, the field will be reduced to six cars, the race becoming a guaranteed Ferrari benefit with Jordan and Minardi left to pick up the pieces.

Alternatively, the FIA could opt to cancel the race, an unlikely option that would result in a dire commercial aftermath.

We await the decision with interest.