Qualifying: Ralf scoops pole again

In a thrill-a-minute qualifying session, Ralf was the sixth man out on track and set a 1m15.529s lap. Montoya was on track three places later, and admitted to a couple of mistakes on his way to 1m15.923s.

Michael Schumacher, of course, was the danger man for the Williams drivers, as the rest of the field, barring Renault's Fernando Alonso, failed to get close to them. Schumacher locked up at Turn 1 on his flying lap, and had to settle for third - just a thousandth of a second in front of the impressive Alonso. Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello will start fifth.

Perhaps the big news of the session, however, was world championship leader Kimi Raikkonen throwing his McLaren into the tyre wall at the first corner and failing to complete his lap. He will start tomorrow's race from the back of the grid.

Ralf was delighted with pole: "It certainly was a surprise. I knew we would be competitive here, but I expected somewhere in the top five. To get both cars on the front row is great. I took it easy into the first turn, which was probably a good idea, and the car was brilliant, so thanks to the team. The Michelin tyres worked really well today."

Montoya quipped: "I told him [Ralf] earlier, you keep getting the poles and I'll keep winning the races! I made a mistake into Turn 3 and had to get out of the throttle in the final chicane too because I was too close to the wall."

Michael S, meanwhile, looked pleased enough with third: "I have to be happy with that, it wasn't one of my better ones. My mistake at the first corner wasn't that big, but knowing where Kimi is, and where we are, it's very promising."

Mark Webber will start an excellent sixth for Jaguar, one spot ahead of Olivier Panis's Toyota. Jarno Trulli recovered to eighth after shunting his Renault in the 15-minute warm-up session before qualifying, while Cristiano da Matta (Toyota) and Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Sauber) both bounced back from difficult days to round out the top 10.

David Coulthard made a number of mistakes to compound McLaren's misery and qualified 11th, ahead of Nick Heidfeld (Sauber), Antonio Pizzonia (Jaguar) and Jacques Villeneuve (BAR). Jos Verstappen was an excellent 15th for Minardi, ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan), Jenson Button (who made a mess of the chicane on his lap for BAR), Justin Wilson (Minardi) and Ralf Firman (Jordan).