Track dries in time for qualifying

Following a weekend of mixed conditions, the weather Gods have finally smiled on Montreal and it will be dry for Canadian Grand Prix qualifying

Jun 14, 2003, 4:49 PM

The pre-final qualifying 15-minute warm-up session took on a whole new urgency, thanks to a lack of dry weather running so far this weekend.

Jarno Trulli's preparations took a huge knock when he shunted into 'Champion's Wall', the concrete barrier on the exit of the final corner. He and Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso had looked strong in the session until that point, and Trulli will now have to qualify the spare car.

Ralf Schumacher topped the session for Williams-BMW with a 1m16.236s lap, which was 0.461s quicker than Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren. David Coulthard backed up his team-mate's efforts with a 1m17.313s effort, with Trulli fourth fastest on 1m17.560s before his shunt.

But what of Ferrari? Rubens Barrichello was - get this! - 16th on 1m18.579s with Michael Schumacher 17th on 1m18.845s. Get set for potentially one of the most exciting qualifying sessions of the season.