A day of mixed fortunes for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro at the “Gilles Villeneuve” circuit, beginning with the good news that Michael Schumacher will be making his second visit of the season to the front row of the grid. The German qualified in second place, while Jenson Button took only the second pole position of his career in the BAR-Honda.

On the down side, Rubens Barrichello will be right down the other end of the grid. The Brazilian failed to complete a flying lap in qualifying, as he encountered a gearbox problem on his F2005 on his warm-up lap. This was actually the second gearbox problem of the day for the Scuderia, as Schumacher’s also failed during the morning’s free practice session. The team is currently assessing if the two failures have the same cause or not.

The second row of the grid is an all-Renault affair, with title leader Fernando Alonso ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella. The McLaren-Mercedes of Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen are fifth and seventh respectively, split by the BAR-Honda of Takuma Sato.

On an afternoon that seemed full of surprises, another one came from Jacques Villeneuve. Naturally, the French-Canadian driver has been the focus of most media attention at the circuit named after his father and he has come in for criticism this weekend both from team boss Peter Sauber and Bernie Ecclestone. The local boy seemed to have upped his game to qualify eighth.

The unusual look to the grid would suggest several different choices when it comes to the fuel loads the various drivers have opted to start the race with. However, in the case of Michael’s performance, the improvement comes from intensive hard work overnight and renewed competitiveness from the Bridgestone tyres over the single lap.

At a circuit that is hard on brakes and engines, a fascinating race can be expected when the lights go out above the grid at 13h00 local time, as the different strategies pan out and tyre wear comes into play. Incidents are very common on the opening lap here, when the cars charge at high speed off the grid into a tricky left-right first corner. For Schumacher, starting at the front means the risk of getting caught up in any such incidents is lessened, while Barrichello could well find he can pick his way past parked cars if any of his rivals tangle ahead of him.

Montreal continues to bask in a humid heatwave and a further unknown element for tomorrow could be the weather as forecasters predict the chance of a thunderstorm at some point in the afternoon.

Jean Todt : “This qualifying session left us with mixed emotions. On the one hand there is the satisfaction of seeing a Ferrari, Michael’s, on the front row of the grid for the second time this season.
 

"On the other hand, there is disappointment that Rubens was unable to do a qualifying lap because of a gearbox problem. It was the second failure of this component today, after Michael suffered a failure at the end of the morning session. Now we have to analyse what happened to see if they both had the same fault or if they were two different problems. Overnight, we worked to improve our situation and we succeeded. Bridgestone also deserve credit for this. Obviously we are happy with Michael’s result, after seeing this morning that our cars were capable of performing well. Of course there is the unknown factor of how much fuel the other cars had on board, but we believe we have a good package for the race. Starting from the back of the grid, Rubens has a difficult afternoon in prospect, but he has shown at other times this year that he is capable of making the best of this type of situation.”

Michael Schumacher : “I am not so surprised to be on the front row, because after yesterday, we understood our problems and had a much better car this morning. In a way, it was lucky I had my gearbox problem then and not when it mattered. Given how many miles we have done in testing the gearbox, at the moment, I don’t understand why we had this problem. Everyone in the team has made a huge effort to get this improvement. As for the race, I am feeling much more confident than at any other moment this season and depending on how the race develops, the long straights mean there are opportunities for overtaking. I do not expect there will be any problems with the track surface tomorrow.”

Rubens Barrichello : “All I can say is that I am very disappointed. My car had a gearbox problem towards the end of my “out” lap and I had to come back to the pits. It’s a real shame, because I think I could have done well this afternoon. Now, I can expect to have to fight my way up the order in the race. It will be very tough, but as always, I will give it my all.”

Ross Brawn : “This was quite a surprise in terms of our overall performance, because we were able to repeat the pace we showed this morning, while our opposition seemed to suffer a bit. Having said that, Michael did not even get a particularly clean lap. From where he is on the grid, he should be able to have a good race. What happened to Rubens was frustrating, because looking at other people’s performance this afternoon, he would also have been in a very strong position.”

Qualifying Session: Michael Schumacher: 2nd 1.15.475 3 laps chassis 245; Rubens Barrichello: 20th - 1 lap chassis 24; Temperatures: air 31° C, track 45° C