Monza, 9th September 2006

As Ferrari managing director Jean Todt pointed out, the top six cars on the grid are covered by just half a second. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers are to be found on the front and second rows of the grid, with Michael Schumacher second and Felipe Massa fourth. While the German felt this was acceptable, the Brazilian was disappointed. Schumacher only lost out on pole by two thousandths of a second to Kimi Raikkonen, who for the second year in succession set the quickest qualifying lap at Monza in his McLaren-Mercedes. Last year though he was penalised and started further back on the grid. As for Felipe, he felt he lost around three tenths of a second when he was held up behind the Renault of reigning world champion Fernando Alonso. Both men were summoned to give their version of events to the Race Stewards, but at the time of writing no action has been taken. Third fastest and therefore just ahead of Felipe on row 2 was a surprised Nick Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber, while Jenson Button rounded off the top six for Honda. The first part of the session was delayed by a red flag, when Yamamoto went off the track in his Super Aguri. A large crowd turned out at Monza, in what is warmer than usual weather that is due to continue tomorrow. Among the crowd, employees of Ferrari and their families and, making his usual Saturday visit to the Temple of Speed, company president, Luca di Montezemolo.

By virtue of the high speed nature of this circuit, tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix should be the shortest, timewise, of the year, as last season's event was all over in one hour and fourteen minutes. The F1 media and probably fans everywhere might actually want it to end as soon as possible as Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has announced that it will explain some of its plans and therefore driver line-up for 2007 once the race is over.