12.06.2004 "No doubt about it, this was a difficult qualifying, with Michael ending up on the third row and Rubens on the fourth", Ferrari qualifying report AND times from Montreal

Jean Todt: 'No doubt about it, this was a difficult qualifying, with Michael ending up on the third row and Rubens on the fourth. The result is not what we would have wished for and it will make for a complicated race tomorrow for us.

'However, it still looks very open and as usual, strategy and reliability will be decisive factors. We aim to bring home as many points as possible, important for both Championships.

Michael Schumacher: 'I would say this was a difficult qualifying session. I had not expected it to be easy, but now it will be interesting to see how well our tyres will perform in the race and how much ground we make up compared to what we have lost in qualifying. I have won races from lower positions on the grid and so I am still confident for tomorrow.'

Rubens Barrichello: 'It was a bit of a complicated day. This morning I took a kerb differently to usual and the car bottomed out hard enough to damage the chassis. The mechanics then did a fantastic job to refit my engine into the spare car, which meant I was able to get out on track again for the second part of the fourth session.

'The new car is handling pretty well, but my lap was not perfect. I actually made a mistake at Turn 6 which probably cost me at least half a second. But I remain confident for tomorrow because the car is very competitive in race trim.'

Ross Brawn: 'All weekend we have had a tyre from Bridgestone that has been very good from the point of view of consistency, but it was a bit of a struggle to get the most out of it on the first lap. That hurt us a bit this afternoon, added to which neither of our drivers did a clean lap.

'But we can still be optimistic as we have a tyre we can rely on to be very good for many laps, as we saw in free practice. Now we must rely on the drivers to make a good start and then help them with the right strategy.'

Pre-qualifying session: Michael Schumacher: 8th 1.13.463 3 laps chassis 239, Rubens Barrichello: 11th 1.13.782 3 laps chassis 236, Temperatures: air 20° C, track 31° C

Qualifying session: Michael Schumacher: 6th 1.13.355 3 laps chassis 239, Rubens Barrichello: 7th 1.13.562 3 laps chassis 236, Temperatures: air 21° C, track 35° C