Montoya gets that Friday feeling...

Montoya is in his rookie Formula 1 season and will start Sunday's race from second on the grid alongside Ferrari's Michael Schumacher after he out-qualified his Williams team mate Ralf Schumacher for the first time in only his sixth race.

Despite the open road ahead of him he said scoring his first victory would be "quite difficult", and believes his improved performance was largely down to having a trouble-free Friday.

"This is the second weekend with no problems on Friday and it makes a huge difference," said the Colombian. "I've talked with engineers and we said we needed to raise out game. We did and it has paid off.

"This morning I was aiming at a top six but I never expected to be ahead of a Ferrari [Rubens Barrichello] and McLaren but at the end of the session the track was a lot quicker. But it's been really close all weekend and I'm glad to be on top of Ralf."

Montoya is unsure how well he will fare in tomorrow's race due to the unpredictability of the new soft Michelin tyre compound being used this weekend.

"The performance of the tyre over one lap is really good," he said, "but we will see tomorrow how they behave over a longer distance. It seems the Bridgestone cars can run a bit longer than us."

For full qualifying results, click here.