Today marked the first qualifying to be run under a new regime that sees just Saturday afternoon’s single lap time for each driver decide the grid for tomorrow’s race. The main impetus behind the change came from all the TV companies involved in the sport, who generally did not have time to broadcast the old Sunday morning grid deciding session. Therefore, as was the case in 2004, cars ran a single flying lap, carrying the fuel load with which they will start the race.

While the format was new, the difficulty affecting the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers remained the same: namely the lack of pace over a single flying lap. At the end of the session, Rubens Barrichello secured himself a place on the fourth row of the grid in seventh spot, while team-mate Michael Schumacher is one row further back in 10th place. Both men might have done slightly better if they had not made mistakes at the wheel: Rubens at Turn 1 and Michael at Turn 10.

So, once again, the Scuderia men will be relying on their usual excellent race pace to move up the order tomorrow afternoon. And, unlike Monaco a week ago, the fact that we are at a “real” race track means overtaking is possible and strategy can also play an important role. Another favourable factor is the weather. Today, track temperature was up in the 40s and even hotter conditions are expected for tomorrow, in what is bound to be the hottest ever European GP held at the Nurburgring. Tyre consistency will therefore be a key factor and Ferrari can rely on Bridgestone to deliver that.

While the bulk of the fans here at the ‘Ring will be cheering for their Schumi, it seems Germany might have found itself another hero in the shape of Nick Heidfeld, who took his first ever F1 pole position today at his 92nd attempt. The Williams-BMW man thus put an end to Kimi Raikkonen’s run of three consecutive poles, but the McLaren-Mercedes driver is still on the front row in second place. Williams, who came second and third in Monaco are evidently on good form right now, as Mark Webber is third, sharing row 2 with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.

The third row sees Juan Pablo Montoya in fifth place for McLaren-Mercedes ahead of the Renault of championship leader Fernando Alonso. Rubens as the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher on his outside and Michael shares his row with the second Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella.

Jean Todt: “Once again in this session, we had to tackle the usual problem that has been with us for a while now, that’s to say the fact we are not totally competitive over the single lap.
 

"Looking at the session overall, there is still the unknown factor of how much fuel the others had on board, given that we have gone back to the old qualifying format we saw last year. We are sure we will be more competitive in the race and now we have to see what strategies the teams have adopted and the answer will come tomorrow afternoon. What is certain is that, as usual, we will do our utmost to get the best possible result with both cars.”

Rubens Barrichello: “This morning, I did not feel we were very competitive, but my qualifying lap was quite good, even if it could have been a bit better. But at least the balance of the car seems good. We definitely look better than last weekend, so now we must wait and see how our strategy plays out tomorrow afternoon.”

Michael Schumacher: “I want to congratulate Nick on his first F1 pole. It was a super lap and he deserves it. On my qualifying lap, I had a bit of understeer, especially in Turn 10 and lost some tenths there. As usual so far this season, I am looking forward to the race when we should be more competitive than today. It is hard for me to predict what we can expect tomorrow, because there have been times over this weekend when things did not look too promising. But the same can be said of Monaco and we had great race pace there, so I just plan to push hard and see what happens, trying to pick up as many points as possible.”

Ross Brawn: “We were not in a strong position to challenge for qualifying, but I think we have a good race set-up and we have a nicely consistent tyre for tomorrow. This will be an important factor as the forecast is for very high temperatures. In this afternoon’s hotter conditions, the car did not react quite as well as in the morning, but within the scope of changes we are allowed to make for the race, we can compensate for that for tomorrow. Unlike Monaco, there is potential to get something out of a good race strategy and of course it is possible to overtake at this track. So, I am optimistic that we can do something good in the race. We have to hope that both drivers make good starts and then as things settle down, wait and see if the race comes to us.”

Qualifying session: Rubens Barrichello: 7th 1.31.249 3 laps chassis 246; Michael Schumacher: 10th 1.31.585 3 laps chassis 245; Temperatures: air 29°C, track 44°C