Drivers condemn new qualifying

The session took a mite over an hour and 50 minutes to complete in Melbourne, some 18 minutes longer than last year's race! One of the initial theories was that we would see cars running on low fuel on the first run to achieve the later starting slots and attendant favourable track conditions for the all-important second lap. But, in practice, this simply didn't happen, with Kimi Raikkonen being the only leading driver to go significantly quicker on his first run.

Rubens Barrichello took to the track first for the opening run by dint of winning the last Grand Prix of '03 in Suzuka, but admitted taking it easy due to a slippery track. Despite starting eighth on his second run, he still managed to secure a front row start.



"To be honest I didn't like the first run, there was no need to go fast," Barrichello said. "I'd rather try hard on Friday as part of the weekend, but today I didn't feel I had to. I was the first car out and the track was dusty and I didn't feel like pushing."

Juan Pablo Montoya agreed: "It's hard to go out in the first session," he said. "You could push and then shunt the car and find you are 10 places back on the grid. The risk is too big and you are going to see this over and over - people just cruising around."

Team principals said that perhaps it is too early to start passing judgement. McLaren boss Ron Dennis said that F1 should wait three races before assessing whether to revert to a previous system of qualifying.