Montoya happy to beat Ralf

Montoya held second before the session was interrupted by Allan McNish's crash and fell back to fifth, one place ahead of his team-mate.

"I was running quite well until McNish had his accident and I had to abort my lap and was called back into the pits, but you can't do anything about it," he said. "It is always nice to be in front of your team-mate.

"We are not happy to see both the McLarens in front of us but I am also sure that we will be able to make their life difficult in the race."

Sixth equalled Ralf's worse starting slot of the year and the German felt he didn't get the most out of the car or himself. "A disappointing qualifying, no doubt about it," he said. "The car wasn't well balanced and I also made a couple of mistakes, especially in my last run, so I blew away my last chance to improve."