Ralf surprised with second

"I am definitely pleased with my result and also a bit surprised as we were expecting to be closer to Ferrari but probably not to qualify between them," he said. "The car was very good throughout the morning and this afternoon's qualifying session and I must thank the team for the good job as well as Michelin. My only concern for tomorrow is that I will be starting from the dirty side of the track but we all have launch control, which will definitely help."

Juan Pablo Montoya had a frustrating session beset by technical gremlins, which affected both his race car and the spare chassis he was forced to switch into. For much of the session he languished towards the foot of the times, but found a good lap when he needed it most to leap up to fourth.

"After all the trouble I had today, this is a pretty good result," he admitted. "The T-car was set-up for Ralf this time and there was not enough time to change everything back, so I found it difficult to drive it. I could have been quicker on my second run, but I had to be careful not to make any mistakes."