Michael Schumacher is third on the provisional grid and Rubens Barrichello is eleventh after the first qualifying session for tomorrow’s fourth round of the world championship.

The world champion was very happy with his performance, especially as he was out on track quite early and was particularly impressed with the fact the Bridgestone tyres have shown improved performance over the single lap discipline.

Barrichello also felt that the F2005 had made excellent progress since the last race in Bahrain three weeks ago, but was less happy with the balance of his car. However, the lap times were very close this afternoon, with Rubens just over a second off the fastest time and so he hopes to maybe move up the order slightly in tomorrow morning’s final qualifying. It was also very close at the front, with Kimi Raikkonen steering his McLaren-Mercedes to provisional pole, just three thousandths of a second ahead of second placed Fernando Alonso in the Renault. Fourth was the Williams-BMW of Mark Webber, with Jenson Button (BAR-Honda) and Jarno Trulli (Toyota) completing the top six.

The big news in the paddock this afternoon also involved the Scuderia, as it was announced that Ferrari will be supplying engines to the Red Bull Racing team for two years, starting in 2006.

It is not the first time that the Maranello marque has supplied other teams in the F1 pit lane: in 1991, Minardi were the beneficiaries, for the 2001 season, the Prost team used Prancing Horse power and from 1997 to the present day, Sauber has had Ferrari engines, branded as Petronas. The arrangement with the Swiss team will terminate at the end of this season.

Jean Todt : “It was a very close first qualifying session with thirteen drivers separated by just over one second. Michael managed to get the most out of the car-engine-Bridgestone tyre package, while Rubens was not perfectly happy with the balance of his car and so was unable to set a better time. There is still a long way to go in this Grand Prix. We must make the most suitable choices for tomorrow’s second qualifying session, when we run with the fuel load with which we start the race.
 

"Then come the 62 laps of this the fourth round of the season, when reliability and consistency in terms of tyre performance will be key factors. Given what we have seen so far, we have cause to be optimistic.”

Michael Schumacher : “I am very pleased with my lap time this afternoon, especially considering I went out quite early in the running order and given that, if we have a slightly weak spot, it is in the one lap performance. But it is clear we have improved in this area. Everyone in the team was very motivated to work hard having seen the performance potential of the F2005 in Bahrain and today’s performance is a result of all their hard work. I think we can be in the fight for the win on Sunday, It will be tight and tough, but the opportunity is there.”

Rubens Barrichello : “We have made a major step forward compared with Bahrain, both in terms of development of the F2005 and the Bridgestone tyres. We are definitely more competitive in relation to the others. On new tyres for qualifying, I was not as happy with the balance of the car as I had been in this morning’s free practice on old ones. There is not much of a time difference between me and those directly ahead of me, so I still have the possibility of moving further up the grid order.”

Ross Brawn : “We can be fairly happy given we did not have the best starting positions for qualifying. Michael in particular did an exceptional lap which gives us something to build on for tomorrow. I feel we can challenge for the win this weekend. Rubens still needs to find a slightly better balance on his car, although there is not much we can do as the cars are now in parc ferme. However, this morning, both drivers did very good long runs, which is encouraging for tomorrow.”

Qualifying session: Michael Schumacher: 3rd 1.20.260 3 laps chassis 245l Rubens Barrichello: 11th 1.20.892 3 laps chassis 246; Temperatures: air 20°C, track 31/30°C