The fight for pole position here at Indianapolis proved a close contest as a Ferrari revival put the cat among the pigeons. In fact revival is the wrong word – the Maranello cars dominated the session, securing a front row in some style.
Michael Schumachers pole time, 1;10.832, was a clear six-tenths of a second ahead of team mate Felipe Massa who was, in turn, half a second clear of the next man, Giancarlo Fisichella in the Renault.
Joining Fisichella on row two is Rubens Barrichello, the in-form Honda driver pipping World Champion Fernando Alonso in the dying seconds of the session.
Alonso will line up fifth, alongside Jacques Villeneuve, the BMW-Saubers again impressive this weekend. Team mate Nick Heidfeld will start tenth, his car suffering a mechanical malady in the final shoot out session.
Jenson Button starts seventh, the Briton alongside Ralf Schumacher in the faster of the Toyota’s. Jarno Trulli, in the second Toyota, endured a return to his dismal luck when his car failed after only a couple of laps in the opening session. He will start in 20th position.
Ninth, alongside Heidfeld, is Kimi Raikkonen, the McLarens disappointing after their fine showing in Canada. Juan Pablo Montoya starts 11th.
Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg continue to struggle for pace in the Williams-Cosworths, the Australian will start 12th with young Rosberg 19th, while Midland impressed by getting both cars into the second session, Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro starting in 14th and 15th positions.
Scott Speed proved the quickest of the Toro Rosso pair at his home race, qualifying an encouraging 13th on a circuit where the V10 cars are expected to struggle, well ahead of team mate Tonio Liuzzi, who will start 21st.
Christian Klien and David Coulthard could do little with the recalcitrant Red Bull RB2 and will start 16th and 17th.
A brighter note for Super Aguri, with Takuma Sato putting in a fine performance to qualify 18th, while Franck Montagny will again start at the back of the grid.
A full quota of cars will take to the grid tomorrow for the United States Grand Prix, a far cry from the fiasco that greeted us last season, with Ferrari looking good to peg back the gap to the all conquering Renaults.
Written: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 18:13:58
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