Qualifying: Rubens takes pole

Barrichello was actually on an even quicker lap than the 1m08.082s, which earned him the top slot, but he was forced to take to evasive action after Mika Salo failed to spot the charging Ferrari rapidly approaching in his mirrors and compromised the Brazilian's line. At the time it looked as though he needed an extra cushion as Ralf Schumacher's Williams was showing much better pace than expected, and was actually quicker than the Ferrari in the middle sector.

However, in the end Ralf was happy just to be on the front row and ahead of his brother, who was forced into the spare car after finding a slight problem with his race chassis. The world champion was clearly flustered by his team-mate's searing pace, and was far more erratic than usual. He had a quick spin at the start of his second flying lap and failed to better any of Barrichello's best sector times as he missed out on the front row for the first time this season.

Juan Pablo Montoya also had to take to his spare after suffering a problem with his race car on his opening lap for the second GP running. Initially the Colombian struggled to get on the pace, but a strong final effort moved him into fourth, albeit a second behind Barrichello.

Track temperatures reached their highest levels of the weekend: 34 degrees Celsius. This seemed to level the playing field in the tyre war. Sauber (Bridgestone) had a great session with their new engine, with Nick Heidfeld fifth and Felipe Massa seventh, while Toyota (Michelin) had its best performance for a while and Mika Salo starts 10th.

Olivier Panis will be happy to start ninth, in contrast team-mate Jacques Villeneuve looked ragged and is back in 17th. It was another tough session for McLaren, with only a late effort by Kimi Raikkonen putting one of the silver cars ahead of a Sauber. The Finn lines up sixth, two places ahead of team-mate David Coulthard.

After their recent good form it was a bad day for the Renault drivers, and Jenson Button will be disappointed with 13th, while the luckless Jarno Trulli is back in 17th. The Italian caused the session to be stopped after the engine in his Renault let go through the fast final corner causing him to spin on his own oil. Next up behind him was the Arrows of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who was caught out by the oil and spun into the gravel. Barrichello followed the pair and he too had to run off the track in avoidance. Given the circumstances the officials had little choice but to show the red flag.

For full qualifying results, click here.