Ralf surprised by qualifying showing

The German, however, claimed his car had the speed to make it into the front two rows of the grid.

"We achieved more than we expected today, but I am still not satisfied because I did not do a perfect lap in the traffic at the end of the session," said Schumacher, who will start the race from sixth.

"That's a pity because the extra tenth of a second to reach the second row would have been easy to find.

"Still, this is a very good result and both Jarno and I have done our best. Last year I struggled in qualifying but this car and tyre combination is working better for me.

"Now we must aim for the points tomorrow. We are not very far away from the top teams and we will do our best to move further forward, but it is very difficult to overtake here. Hopefully we can have our usual good pit stops and then we can see where we end up."

Toyota's promising day was completed by Jarno Trulli's ninth place.

The Italian, however, was unhappy with pole setter Michael Schumacher after the Ferrari driver held him up during a flying lap.

"It was a good afternoon's work for us but it would have been even better if I hadn't hit traffic on my quickest lap in Session 3," said Trulli. "Unfortunately on my last run I was behind Michael Schumacher who didn't let me by when he was on a slow lap.

"He just came out of the pits and held me up all the way around his out lap, which I don't think was fair. Up to that point the sessions had gone well."