By Karl King
May 6 2006

After the pace shown in the first and second knock-out sessions of today's qualifying, I must say I was expecting more from McLaren in the pole shoot-out session. In fact I was so shocked, especially with Montoya's lack of just about anything, that I forgot to post the times up here.

In Juan Pablo's defense, he is using the old specification Mercedes V8 for the second race in a row, whilst team mate Kimi Raikkonen is eligible for the new spec engine. One would not have expected Juan Pablo to line up behind Jacques Villenueve and Jarno Trulli, however.

Here's a quick bit by bit:

Knock Out 1

After a glitch behind the scenes, a mysterious red flag appeared during the first phase.

Much to the disappointment of Christijan Albers, who was looking to get through the next phase, the FIA took a break after the first phase to revise the times. It was concluded that Jacques Villenueve, who was on a lap when the red flag was thrown should be taken out of the drop zone.

Adding insult to injury for Albers, Klien was also promoted, although not out of the drop zone, he will start ahead of Albers.

Kimi Raikkonen, however showed good place in the McLaren setting the third fastest time.

OUT: Franck Montagny, Takuma Sato, Tiago Monteiro, Scott Speed, Christijan Albers, Christian Klien.

Knock Out 2

Again, for the second GP running not making the top 10, Giancarlo Fisichella decided to walk down to the BMW Sauber. However, the flying visit was solely business rather than pleasure with the Italian laying down the law to an undisgruntled Villenueve. Fisi, backed up by Renault telemetry, claimed JV cost him 0.7s during his hot lap.

Kimi Raikkonen again showed promise, with the second fastest time, and Juan Pablo fifth.

OUT: Tonio Liuzzi, Nick Heidfeld, David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella, Nico Rosberg, Ralf Schumacher.

Pole Shoot Out

Fernando Alonso took the pole during a straight duel with Michael Schumacher, who will start the race alongside the defending champ.

His Ferrari team mate, Felipe Massa was third, and will be fighting his predecessor Rubens Barrichello into the first corner, making an all-Brazilian front row.

Kimi Raikkonen didn't quite live up to earlier promise in fifth, while on his worst performance of 2006, Jenson Button will start sixth.

The mid-field teams of Toyota and BMW will both start a car ahead of Montoya tomorrow, with Jarno Trulli and Jacques Villeneuve in seventh and eighth respectively.

Juan Pablo Montoya, failing to deliver, and Mark Webber completed the top ten.