Hockenheim, 29th July 2006

This afternoon's qualifying session was one of the most exciting of the year, with grid positions in doubt until the very last moments of the third and final part of the session. Michael Schumacher had an eventful afternoon on his way to a slot on the front row, in second place alongside pole-sitter, Kimi Raikkonen in his McLaren-Mercedes. At one point, Michael nearly ran off the slip road as he came into the pits and in another incident, he just squeezed out of his pit stop into pit lane, ahead of Fernando Alonso. Incidentally, the Renault man celebrates his 25th birthday today.

Felipe Massa was next fastest and will thus line up for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, behind Raikkonen in third place, with the Honda of Jenson Button alongside him on row 2. The third row sees the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella in fifth spot, with the Honda of Rubens Barrichello outside him. The session was red-flagged in the first few minutes, when Scott Speed crashed his Toro Rosso into the wall. The hot weather is due to continue tomorrow, possibly even hotter conditions than today, so much will depend on the consistency of tyre performance and the actual strategies chosen by the leaders. On both these counts, Ferrari is reasonably confident that it has all the right elements in place.