Montoya hopes race strategy pays off

The McLaren driver put on a discreet performance to set the seventh fastest time after being forced to switch to the spare car following some problems with his racing machine.

Montoya finished over a second off the pace set by pole position man Michael Schumacher, but the Colombian believes their race strategy should allow them to shine in the race.

"Today's qualifying result was OK for me particularly considering the limited amount of running I have done so far this weekend," said Montoya. "My car developed a fuel pressure problem in practice this morning, and as a result we decided to change to the spare car which was not an issue.

"However to try and cure the understeer I experienced yesterday, we had made some quite dramatic set-up changes for this morning's practice, but as we never got an opportunity to evaluate them, we went a bit more conservative with the car for qualifying. I think this will pay off in the race because the car is very consistent.

"There are a number of strategy options, but I think we have chosen the right one and podium positions should definitely be possible."

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen claimed he had failed to use his car's full potential in the final session, the Finn having to settle for eighth place.

"I'm a bit disappointed as I could have done better today, and I didn't get the opportunity to show the full potential of our package," he said. "Everything went well in the first two qualifying sessions, but things didn't go according to plan in the last part of qualifying where I did my two flying laps.

"On the first run I used the best of my Michelin tyres, but I drove a better lap on my second run but still lost time in the last part of the lap. However I think if things goes our way in the race we should be OK."