Raikkonen on Pole as Drivers Falter

Raikkonen's McLaren team have dominated all weekend and in a session filled with errors from his competitors he eased to a top time of 1:26.797 and put himself in with a strong chance of victory.

He finished with a 0.242-second advantage over second-placed Giancarlo Fisichella with Fernando Alonso finished third fastest, pushing the second McLaren of Juan Pablo Montoya down to fourth

Jarno Trulli claimed fifth fastest time for Toyota, Williams duo Nick Heidfeld and Australian Mark Webber finished sixth and seventh fastest while Ferrari-bound Brazilian Felipe Massa, who currently drives for Sauber, finished eighth.

German Ralf Schumacher made it two in the top ten for Toyota, when he set the ninth fastest time, and Austrian Christian Klien, of Red Bull Racing, finished the session in tenth place.

Jacques Villeneuve threw away any chance of a strong grid spot on his flying lap when he made a mistake at the tricky turn eight and failed to collect his spinning Sauber so did not set a lap time.

Dutchman Robert Doornbos also failed to post a time when the rear end of his Minardi caught fire on his lap and Narain Karthikeyan, who had his Jordan's engine changed in practice, failed to complete his lap.

Montoya set the first front-running lap with a time of 1:27.352 but Alonso then went to the top when he bettered the Colombian's effort by a little more than three tenths of a second.

Sato made a mistake on his lap and went off the track at turn eight then caused confusion for Webber on his flying lap when he came across the cruising Japanese driver on his slowing down lap and Sato went off again at turn ten.

Fisichella then went top in the second Renault and Button, who has looked strong all weekend and was faster than Fisichella, made a mistake at the same turn as Sato then went over the kerbs at turn 10 to ruin his lap.

Ralf Schumacher then straight-lined turn ten in his Toyota and World Champion Michael Schumacher did the same, pulling in without setting a time, before Raikkonen came out and kept it clean to claim the pole.

Pos       Driver        Team                   Time
 1.  (20) Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:26.797
 2.  (12) Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:27.039 + 0.242 
 3.  (10) Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:27.050 + 0.253
 4.   (4) Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:27.352 + 0.555
 5.  (17) Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:27.501 + 0.704
 6.  (15) Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:27.929 + 1.132
 7.  (14) Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:27.944 + 1.147
 8.   (7) Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:28.419 + 1.622
 9.  (18) R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:28.594 + 1.797
10.   (2) Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:28.963 + 2.166
11.  (11) Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:29.369 + 2.572
12.   (1) Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:29.764 + 2.967
13.  (16) Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:30.063 + 3.266
14.  (13) Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:30.175 + 3.378
15.   (8) Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:30.710 + 3.913
16.   (6) Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:32.186 + 5.389
17.  (19) M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  No Time 
18.   (9) Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  No Time  *
19.   (5) Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  No Time 
20.   (3) Doornbos      Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  No Time 

All Timing Unofficial

* replaced an engine and will therefore be demoted to the back of the grid.