Symonds calls for one session

Many drivers elected to back off during the first session in an attempt to start the second session earlier with rain expected to fall during the qualifying hour. The result of this was that several cars crawled across the line in front of packed grandstands in order to record the slowest time.

"Undoubtedly, there will be much discussion about what happened in the first qualifying session, but it should come as a surprise to no-one," said Symonds. "The rules have been like this for a long time, and the consequences were understood by the teams when they were first published.

"It only goes to reinforce our view that there is nothing wrong with single lap qualifying, but that the first session is unnecessary."

The qualifying shenanigans will be of little consequence to Fernando Alonso who starts 16th on the grid after his engine failed during free practice this morning. He was forced to use the engine in his spare car which resulted a 10-place grid penalty.

"It was a day of two halves for me," said Alonso. "My problem this morning was bad luck and it is disappointing, but I can't do anything about it now. In terms of qualifying, I found the wind very difficult and the car balance was changing in every corner, but I also knew that with the grid penalty, I really had to push.

"I didn't leave any margin for error, and took quite a lot of risks - it would have been easy to make a mistake. Tomorrow, I think I will need some unusual incident in the race or unpredictable weather to finish high up, but I will still be looking to score points."

Monaco winner Jarno Trulli could not match his front row start from last year, but got within a hundredth of beating Michael Schumacher's on his way to fifth fastest time.

"I did my best on the lap. The car was well balanced, but a lost some time in the first sector through Becketts," he said. "After that though, I managed to claw some time back in the second, and then did very well in the third sector. It was windy, but I don't think it was much different for me than the other drivers. I am pleased with fifth, and we now need to say how the strategies play out tomorrow."