Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella secured the second pole position of his career on Sunday morning in Melbourne.
The Italian converted his supreme Saturday advantage – which came thanks to some less than perfect weather – into a front row start for the season opening Australian Grand Prix.
Fisichella may not have been fastest – Williams’ Mark Webber got the better of his rivals on home soil – but he nonetheless ended the morning almost three seconds ahead of the second placed Toyota Jarno Trulli.
The pace-setting Webber remained in third, despite setting an individual time almost one second faster than that of Trulli, ahead of Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber) and David Coulthard (Red Bull).
Coulthard was one of the surprises of the session. The Scot recorded one of the day’s fastest times to leapfrog his team-mate Christian Klien for position five, despite his traditional struggle with the single-lap system.
Juan Pablo Montoya (ninth, McLaren), Kimi Raikkonen (10th, McLaren) and Rubens Barrichello (11th, Ferrari) all gained one position at the expense of Jordan’s Indian rookie, Narain Karthikeyan.
Ralf Schumacher was the biggest mover as he gained two positions, to 15th, in his Toyota.
Christijan Albers (Minardi), Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), Takuma Sato (BAR) and Felipe Massa (Sauber) all ended the session without a time.
Schumacher had a new engine strapped in his F2004M and, like Sato, elected to only complete an installation lap.
Written: Sun, 06 Mar 2005 00:08:51
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