The qualifying session for the 2005 European Grand Prix would see The BMW WilliamsF1 team finish the session with a fantastic result with Nick Heidfeld securing pole position with Mark Webber in third. They did not appear to have the pace to achieve such a result, based on practice times, but the big question was how much fuel they had on board. Only tomorrow will give us the answer to this question. Despite this the result for the team was just great.

Qualifying would take place under sunny conditions with the track temperature almost 50 degrees Celsius, which may be of assistance to the Michelin runners. The BMW WilliamsF1 drivers would be running second and third last, given their finishing positions in Monaco. One must keep in mind that the cars are running in race trim so we don't know what fuel they are running with. The session would start with BAR's Takuma Sato coming out onto the circuit. His first sector would see him set a time of 30.4, finishing his lap with a time of 1m:32.926, to be almost two seconds slower than he went in practice.

Now it was the turn of BAR team-mate Jenson Button. He had set a time of 1m:30.773 in practice and his lap would see him a tenth up through sector one, slightly down after sector two, but would finish his lap with a time of 1m:32.594 to place him on provisional pole by three tenths.

Jordan's Narain Karthikeyan was the third driver out and his lap would see him e
almost a full second down after sector one. He would lose another two seconds in his lap to finish with a time of 1m:36.192 to be in a very temporary third, 3.5 seconds slower than after sector one, three tenths after the second. But a strong final sector, in particular the Schumacher chicane, would see David move ahead of Jenson, with a time of 1m:32.553. Looking at their times it would appear that both BAR's were carrying a lot of fuel.

Minardi's Patrick Friesacher was next up. He would be quicker than Karthikeyan's Jordan in the first two sectors to finish with a lap time of 1m:35.954 to be fourth. The next group of drivers would see Red Bull's Tonio Liuzzi followed by Albers, Monterio, Fisichella, and Villeneuve.

Liuzzi would start his lap and he was fastest in the first sector been two tenths up, he would set a personal best in the second, and would cross the line with a time of 1m:32.642 after losing half a second with a small mistake at the chicane. He was in third. Albers was next and he was nearly a full second down after just the first sector. The rest of his lap would see him lose more time finishing with a time of 1m:36.239 which should see him slowest.

The second Jordan of Tiago Monteiro was out and he would be considerably faster than his team-mate in sector one. It was the same for the second and he would complete his lap with a time of 1m:35.047 to be fastest of the Jordan and Minardi drivers. The Minardi of Friesacher was a full second behind the Jordan driver.

Now we had the first of the Renault's, that of Giancarlo Fisichella. As one would
expect the Italian was able to easily go fastest in all the sectors finishing with a
time of 1m:31.566 to go to the top of the times. Now that will come against other quick drivers is hard to say. The final driver in this group was Villeneuve. The Canadian started his lap and was three tenths down on Fisichella after sector one. He would lose a considerable amount of time in sector two and would finish in fifth with a time of 1m:32.891.

The third group was made up of Trulli, Massa, Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, and Ralf Schumacher. The first of the Toyota's would start its lap with Jarno looking to put his car near the front. The first sector would see him set the quickest time, 29.7 seconds. He would repeat that in the second to be eight tenths up and would cross the line with a time of 1m:30.700. Fisichella in second was 0.866 behind the Toyota.

The second of the Sauber's was next and Massa was some six tenths slower than Trulli after sector one but was still on the pace of Fisichella. He would finish his lap with a time of 1m:32.205 to be some 1.5 seconds slower than Trulli but four places ahead of team-mate Villeneuve to be in third. Now we had the first of the Ferrari's with Rubens Barrichello starting his lap. He was off the pace in the opening sector but would see the fastest time in the second. With a solid third sector Rubens would move into second with a time of 1m:31.249. This was still half a second off Trulli's time.

Michael Schumacher was next out and was just a tenth down after sector one, he would lose half a second in the second, to finish with a time of 1m:31.585 to be in fourth. Now it was brother Ralf's turn. The Toyota driver would start his lap and was half a second down after sector two. Despite losing further time in the third Ralf would finish with a time good enough for third, a 1m:31.392. That completed the third group of drivers.

The next group would see Montoya followed by Alonso, Webber, Heidfeld, and Raikkonen. Montoya, who had looked strong in all the practice sessions, would start his lap. He was three tenths down after sector one. He would maintain this in the second and the final sector would see him set the fastest time to complete his lap and move into second, a time of 1m:30.890. Now it was the turn of championship leader Fernando Alonso. The Renault driver would be two tenths down after sector one, the second would see him lose further time, and he would cross the line with a time of 1m:31.056 to be in third.

With just three drivers remaining Trulli's time was looking very good for pole. Next was Mark Webber and he would start his flying lap and was fastest in the fist sector. He would repeat this in the second. He would finish with a time of 1m:30.368 to move into provisional pole. It was a great lap from the BMW WilliamsF1 driver. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld was next. Nick would respond to mark's time setting the fastest firs sector by a fraction. His second sector would see him fastest again.

Could Nick take the quickest time from his team-mate? With the quickest third sector the answer was yes. Nick would set a time of 1m:30.081 to leave Mark 0.287 seconds behind him. Now we had one driver left, Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi would be a tenth down on Nick's time in the opening sector. His second would see him lose further time. With the quickest third sector Kimi would split the two FW27's and move into second with a time of 1m:30.197. But it would be Nick Heidfeld who would secure pole for the 2005 European GP.