Ferrari keeps rivals guessing

The Ferrari star was 0.682s ahead of team mate Rubens Barrichello, who qualified third. It was the sort of margin that suggested that the two men are on different strategies, and that Michael may be planning to make an early stop and possible run one more stint than the Michelin opposition in an attempt to get the best out of the Bridgestone tyres.

Usually it's Rubens who tries a gamble and makes more stops than his team mate. In order for such a plan to work he's going to have to get the start right and charge off into the distance, but with Mark Webber and Rubens immediately behind, he can probably have a comfortable night's sleep.

Inevitably the world champion talked up his lap and suggested that it was something special, and it could be that he was genuinely surprised by his pace relative to the fuel load he is running. If that is the case the rest are going to have a frustrating Sunday afternoon.

"I have to say it was a mind-blowing lap, really perfect and spot-on," he said. "We were not quite there on Friday, but the whole team worked very well to get the programme back on track.

"The main reason I picked up so much time between the two runs was that the track improved a lot with much more grip. I tried to be careful in the final sector where it is easy to make mistakes in the last two corners.

"Tomorrow, the car will not be affected much by the heat, but with the high temperatures the tyre grip goes down. Inside the cockpit, it will be very hard work for us tomorrow and even though we expect that here, it seems to get harder every year as the cars get quicker."

Although he didn't elaborate, Rubens more or less admitted that the Ferrari pair are on different strategies.

"I am not worried about the time difference to Michael," noted the Brazilian. "Firstly, I made a small mistake in the last corner and then I made some different choices to my team-mate. So, although I was not entirely happy with my car in terms of qualifying, I have concentrated very hard on the race and am very happy with my set-up for tomorrow, when I hope everything will come my way. In this heat, it will be a very difficult race."

Technical director Ross Brawn remains cautious, suggesting that the team is trying something different: "Michael did a perfect lap. Our engineers did a fine job in defining the set-up, to make the car very well balanced. Given how hard we worked after yesterday's practice in terms of analysing the data and deciding which way to go, I think this was a well-deserved result.

"I did not expect to have such a big advantage over our competitors, keeping in mind that we don't know what fuel loads they are running. So it is difficult to predict what will happen in the race. Tyres will be crucial."