Ferrari delighted with all-red front row

Michael Schumacher secured pole - the 52nd of his career - with a best lap of 1m17.762s, with Rubens Barrichello completing a Ferrari front row lock-out by being second fastest in 1m18.020s.

"Securing an all-red front row is the best way to start the race," said Ferrari team chief Jean Todt, " even though we'll have to wait until tomorrow to get a clear picture of the fuel levels being run by the others. The F2003-GA has confirmed its potential right from its very first appearance at a Grand Prix weekend. Now we can expect a very tough race with, as ueusal, reliability and strategy playing key roles.

Michael is starting from pole, but he hasn't found it all easy: "This is the first time that I've driven the new car at this track and so it wasn't easy to find the right direction in terms of set-up, but today's result shows that we seem to have got it right. As usual with a new car we have more work to do, checking everything on the car, but the whole team has done a fantastic job. How does this car differ from the old one? It's faster! You always aim to make a car faster and more neutral and the team has worked hard on each detail of the package."

Rubens was disappointed with his lap, even though it was good enough for the outside front row position: "It wasn't a great lap for me. Being first and second on the grid is a very good start for the car, but in qualifying there's always the compromise between going on the limit and being a little bit cautious as the track here is very dirty if you go a little bit of the line, as Kimi [Raikkonen] showed."