Up until then the line up sorted itself out much as one would expect it to. 1 exception to this was Nick Heidfeld whose transmission seized up at the 1st corner. He will likely start from pit lane with a full fuel load. Teammate Frentzen needed a quick engine change before he was able to qualify and only managed a 15th spot for their troubles.

Neither Jordan impressed with 13th and 14th spots for Fisichella and Firman. No surprises for Minardi either with 18th and 19th spots for “Jos the Boss” and Justin Wilson. Villeneuve in 17th for BAR, Pizzonia 16th for Jaguar with unimpressive performances again.

Webber for Jaguar in 11th and Button for BAR in 12th both up staged their teammates, with Button being the less surprising performer of the 2, in my opinion.

Neither Toyota had especially good runs but Panis did manage 7th over teammate Da Matta in 10th. DC manages 9th behind Alonso in the 2nd Renault in 8th. Trulli in the other Renault starts from 6th behind the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello 5th.

Montoya in the Williams took 4th just behind Ralf who grids from 3rd.

Now Michael takes to the track and takes pole! But as quickly as he took it, Raikkonen took it away by a mere .032 seconds! This is the young Finns 1st pole and the 1st pole for the McLaren MP-4/17D too.

So Michael will start on the dirty line tomorrow and things could be interesting as we have become accustomed to in Formula One™ starts.

Thankfully the weather cooperated today and tomorrow’s forecast sounds like it will be good also.

Article by: Tony Moffett