Nurburg, 6th May

Proving that pole position in Imola a fortnight ago was no fluke, Michael Schumacher again put his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 248 F1 on the front row of the grid, although this time in second place, alongside pole sitter Fernando Alonso in the Renault. Felipe Massa on the other hand, actually improved on his San Marino performance by qualifying third at the Nurburgring, with Rubens Barrichello in the Honda making it an all-Brazilian second row in fourth place. Kimi Raikkonen is fifth for McLaren-Mercedes while in the other Honda, Jenson Button is sixth. It was an incident filled session in more ways than one: firstly, just before the end of the first 15 minute sector, an error in the timing system provoked the red flag icon to be shown on the timing screens and by the time the message was posted stating it was incorrect, it had affected the runs of some of the slower competitors. There was plenty of action in Race Control after the session: Christian Klien was badly delayed by Takuma Sato, but the Austrian's Red Bull team declined to lodge a protest as it would have no effect on his position. Giancarlo Fisichella and Jacques Villeneuve were also called up to explain what they got up to, as the Italian Renault man had gone into the BMW garage to complain very vociferously to the Canadian, whom he felt had held him up unnecessarily.
Although it has no effect on the two Ferrari drivers, both Williams are due to change their Cosworth engines and as they are currently 10th and 12th fastest at the end of the session, both Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg will have to move down the grid tomorrow.