Scuderia Ferrari has been through several difficult days this season, but that does not make them any easier to deal with, so there was a general air of disappointment in the camp, after Rubens Barrichello, the eleventh driver to make his run in qualifying, set the eleventh fastest time.

Michael Schumacher started off with the perceived advantage of being the penultimate man to come out of pit lane, thanks to his second place finish in Hungary three weeks ago. However, a spin in the second sector meant that he did not even post a time and was credited with 17th place on the grid. As has been the case at most races this year, lack of grip, particularly over the one flying lap required for qualifying, is the main weakness in the Scuderia’s armoury.

Given that 17th place equates to the penultimate row of the grid, the team therefore decided to at least give Michael the slight advantage of starting with a new 053 engine in the back of his F2005, as the penalty of moving one row further back is hardly of any consequence. In fact, he will start ahead of Jordan’s Narain Karthikeyan as his car has required two changes of its Toyota power plant. Of course, the team might well decide prior to the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix, to start the reigning world champion from pit lane, if it is felt to be an advantage to add more fuel to his car to allow a longer first stint.

In the fight between the two teams currently at the top of the championship classifications, McLaren-Mercedes continues to put leaders Renault under pressure, as Kimi Raikkonen took his fifth pole position of the season. He shares the front row with the French team’s Giancarlo Fisichella, while Drivers’ points leader, Fernando Alonso, is on the inside of Row 2, with the second McLaren-Mercedes of Juan Pablo Montoya in fourth place. Row 3 sees the Toyota of Jarno Trulli in fifth place, ahead of the Williams-BMW of Nick Heidfeld. Rubens will start with the Red Bull Racing of David Coulthard for company on Row six.

Jean Todt: “We were ready for a difficult qualifying session, but the result was worse than we had expected. Michael spun in the second sector and did not complete his timed lap, while Rubens could do no better than eleventh. The main problem we have had this weekend is the one we have been carrying around since the start of the season, namely a considerable lack of grip, which makes itself most felt in qualifying. Given the situation, we will now change the engine in Michael’s car.
 

"We can expect a tough race tomorrow and in many ways it will be a step into the unknown, from reliability to tyre wear. Honestly, I think the most we can hope for is to get our cars home in the points.”

Rubens Barrichello: “Even though we adopted a conservative approach to qualifying, I was fighting with a lack of grip from the car. I am confident the tyres will be good for the race, however, in qualifying we had some graining issues, which cost me time in the final sector where I had too much understeer. My lap was on the limit of what I could do and for tomorrow I think eleventh place means I can have a good race especially as the car seems to perform better when the tyres are worn than when they are completely new. It’s a shame for Michael that he went off.”

Michael Schumacher: “We have been uncompetitive all weekend so far, therefore I had not expected to qualify very well: maybe around seventh place, which would not have been too bad for tomorrow’s race. Even though we should really be looking for race wins, we could at least have been fighting for points. But, I went off the track and this is the result. We had expected Turn 9 to be difficult as the wind had picked up and I thought I had taken this into account, but obviously not enough. In the race, all I can do is push hard and try and do my best. It is still important for us to do as well as possible here, to help our chances in qualifying at Monza. After our performance in Hockenheim and Budapest, this weekend is clearly a step backwards.”

Ross Brawn: “After our performance this morning, we adopted a more conservative strategy. Even so, Rubens was unable to lap as quickly as we had expected. I think Michael might just have scraped into a top six position if he had not gone off, which with the fuel load he was carrying and an expected consistent performance in the race, could have been a good place to be. The track conditions did not change very much from the morning, but there was a lot of dust on the track from people going off all over the place.”

Qualifying session - Rubens Barrichello: 11th 1.29.369 3 laps chassis 246; Michael Schumacher: 17th - 2 laps chassis 245; Temperatures: air 30°C, track 42/41°C