After qualifying for the United States Grand Prix it would be McLaren's David Coulthard who was fastest of Michelin supplied drivers.

David had an engine change prior to qualifying and made good use of his fresh Mercedes V10 to pip BMW WilliamsF1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya to third place right at the end of the session. "It's nice to qualify well here at Indianapolis and hopefully we should be able to perform in tomorrow's race." said David. "Now we are aiming to maintain the pace in tomorrow's race, where tyres will be play an important role."

Juan Pablo, won the Indianapolis 500 in 2000 and hopes to become the first driver to win races on Indy's famous oval and the road course. He missed out third position at the last moment by one thousandth of a second and will therefore start from position four, in front of team mate Ralf Schumacher.

"Tomorrow I am starting my race from the dirty side of the track and this is not really helpful. But this is racing. Today we just could get a good balance. I think at the moment we just haven't got the speed to beat Ferrari." said the Colombian. Ralf Schumacher qualified fifth fastest. "It is very difficult to find the right balance for the car here. I had continuous set-up problems. The tyres were all right and I think they are also looking quite good for tomorrow" said Ralf.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen posted the sixth fastest time. Kimi completed qualifying in his T-car following an accident during this morning's free practice, which saw the Finn going off the track and damaging the front suspension. Renault's Jarno Trulli, who was eighth, lapped within half a second of Coulthard and completed the list of five Michelin runners on the top ten.

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director, responded to various questions.

Michelin has taken seven pole positions this season but did not make its customary challenge for top spot today. How do you react to today's qualifying session?

"It went pretty much as we expected, to be honest, although there were one or two surprises. The margin between the two McLaren drivers is a little bigger than usual, for instance, and Jaguar has fallen off the pace since this morning for reasons that we have yet to ascertain. I have to congratulate David Coulthard on his excellent run at the end of the session because the track conditions didn't improve a great deal and most of the best times were set early on, when it was cooler. His was a very good lap."

Will we see both your harder, primary (A) tyre and the softer option (B) in the race?

"No. The pattern today was the same as that we saw yesterday. One of our two dry-weather compounds proved to be fast and consistent in equal measure and all our partner teams have opted to use it in the race."

How do you feel about your prospects for the race?

"I am quietly optimistic. This year it has often been the case that race results don't reflect what we have seen in qualifying and obviously I hope that might happen again this weekend. Our tyres look to be in very good shape for the race because they are very stable over long runs. We have no concerns at all about durability."

This is traditionally a one-stop race. Have you seen anything to make you think things might be different this season?

"You never know. Single-stop strategies have always been favoured here in the past but simulations show it would not be an outrageous gamble to attempt pitting twice."