San Marino: 5th and 11th on Sunday

By Karl King
April 24 2005

Sunday Qualifying was good news for the Toyota boys, Jarno moving up a place thanks to a mistake by Michael, and Ralf moving up 2 thanks to his brother and Massa's penalty! Michael will start from 13th.

Jarno Trulli was a mere 7 hundredths off of 4th place man, Mark Webber's aggregate time.

The drivers managing to surprise were Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella, both making up 2 places.

Jarno has got the best position of all the Italians, with Fisi 12th and Tonio 15th, trailing his team-mate DC who qualified  in 14th. All the Italians are at an advantage, whether it be to Michaels mistake or Massa's demotion. A disappointing day for Red Bull who have recently signed a deal for Ferrari engines for 2006 and 2007.

Jarno: "I never expected to be so high up in qualifying here, so this is a good
result. I thought it would have been more difficult this morning on old
tyres, but instead I was happy with the balance of the car and I did a good
lap time. The race could still be difficult because we'll have to see how
well we can keep our pace up over longer distances. The weather could yet
play a part too but I will be doing my best to take another points finish."

Ralf: "It was another clean lap for me, with no real problems, but the conditions
were such that everyone was going to go quicker with each run. But that's
the way it is so we have to make the best of it. Looking ahead to this
afternoon the race might start off quite boring because it's so difficult to
overtake here, but we could have some racing towards the end. One way or
another we hope we can come away with more points."

Jarno will be starting on the clean side of the grid, good news for the highest-ranking Toyota. The rain held off and Toyota is happy to have both drivers in the top 10.

Mike's view: "That was quite a satisfying qualifying session for us. It was always going
to be difficult to pick up places with the track improving throughout the
session because it meant that the cars who went after you were going to have
a better track. So I think we can be very satisfied with 5th and 10th on the
grid. Our weather forecast is predicting probably no more rain, but we'll
have to see. Either way I'm sure we can have a strong race and get both cars
in the points."

Full Times:

1. RAIKKONEN     McLaren   2m42.880s

2. ALONSO        Renault   2m43.441s
3. BUTTON        BAR       2m44.105s

4. WEBBER        Williams  2m44.511s
5. TRULLI        Toyota    2m44.518s

6. SATO          BAR       2m44.658s

7. WURZ          McLaren   2m44.689s

8. HEIDFELD      Williams  2m45.196s

9. BARRICHELLO   Ferrari   2m45.243s

10. R.SCHUMACHER Toyota    2m45.416s

11. VILLENEUVE   Sauber    2m46.359s
12. FISICHELLA   Renault   2m46.710s
13. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari   2m47.244s

14. COULTHARD    Red Bull  2m48.070s

15. LIUZZI       Red Bull  2m48.155s
16. KARTHIKEYAN  Jordan    2m52.099s

17. MONTEIRO     Jordan    2m54.252s
18. MASSA        Sauber    2m44.930s* 

19. FRIESACHER   Minardi   2m57.048s

20. ALBERS       Minardi   no time
Massa has been demoted 10 places for a change of engine