Montoya rises to the occasion

"I think it went pretty well, the car was working good. In the warm up I went off three times in the same place because the car was quite difficult to drive and different from what I had in practice. I lost a bit of time in Turn One because I went off twice there earlier and you don't want to put the car on the grass in qualifying. But apart from that I seem to have put a reasonably good lap together."

Team-mate Ralf Schumacher had to contend with a slightly cooler track on his hot lap, after a poor performance in pre-qualifying he was scheduled to run much earlier in the session than Montoya. He was still disappointed in his performance, qualifying ninth, but indicated that the fuel-light Saubers ahead of him were not likely to be in front for long in the race.

"I made a mistake in the first sector which cost me a few tenths of a second. Today I have had to pay the price for my performance on Friday as this caused my early starting time when the track was not in its best condition. I am not too worried about the two Saubers in front of me, I think they can be sorted out in the race."

Williams' chief operating engineer, Sam Michael, had his own assessment of the fuel situation relative to the leaders. "It could have been a lot worse," he said. "It is difficult to say on what position you really are in, as you do not know how much fuel everybody has taken for qualifying. I think it will turn out tomorrow that we are on a similar fuel level as Ferrari."