Schumacher 'confident' for weekend

"I feel very comfortable in the car and after a good start, it means we can be confident for the rest of the weekend. It is a nice feeling to be racing the new car and this provisional pole means that so far the car has lived up to out expectations. For the race, we can expect hot conditions which means the tyres will be will be sliding quite a bit, but we expect that here and have planned for it."

Rubens Barrichello's car suffered a water leak shortly before his qualifying run, forcing him to use the spare, which was set up for Schumacher. "I am just happy to have done a competitive time, because the settings on the spare car were very different to mine in terms of the seat and the position of the pedals," he said.

"Actually, I have to say it was fun making the last minute switch! Hopefully tomorrow, the situation will be calmer and I will be able to do a better lap. I hope to be on pole."

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn was understandably happy with the performance of the new car. "We still have some work to do on the balance of the car for tomorrow," he said, "but the results are encouraging and I think we can look forward to a strong race on Sunday."