Lowly position doesn't concern Montoya

Fourth on track, Montoya was always going to suffer like many of his regular frontrunning rivals in the wet conditions. He reasoned that his lap time advantage over team-mate Ralf Schumacher was significant, after the Colombian had struggled in the earlier one hour free practice session.

"Ralf was pretty much quicker than me all morning and to be faster than him in qualifying is obviously positive for me," said Montoya. "In the last sector I lost a lot of time through the fast chicane due to the handling of the car, which wasn't how I expected it to be there, so I had to drive under the limit. We have to wait and see what is going on with the weather but I think we are looking pretty competitive and consistent. After all what really matters is where everyone qualifies tomorrow, not so much today."

European GP winner Schumacher, who was 17th fastest, said: "We had no luck with the weather, but one has to take things as they come and always try to get the best out of a difficult situation. My car had slight understeer but in the first two sectors my time was better than Kimi Raikkonen's, who had gone out just before me on the same Michelin wet tyres. However, in the third sector, I had traction problems which cost me quite a lot of time."