By Jamie Makin
March 5 2005

Team SAUBER PETRONAS drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Felipe Massa achieved fourth and 20th positions respectively after this afternoon's first qualifying session, so tomorrow they will start final qualifying first and 17th in the running order. The session was marred by sporadic heavy downpours with drying conditions in between. The conditions were different for each and every driver and some of the results were truly the luck of the draw.

Jacques Villeneuve had perhaps the best conditions of the session and thus opted to risk going out on dry weather tyres. The gamble bit him though as he lost control and spun on his warmup lap, narrowly avoiding the wall. As a result his flying lap was not as good as it could have been as he had to take it easy to avoid some puddles remaining on track. By the end of the session he had achieved fourth place which will put him in a good position should he run a competitive lap in tomorrow's final qualifying session.

"The weather made things pretty difficult for us today," the French Canadian explained. "When it was my turn it was a very tough decision which Michelin tyre to go for. It was a choice between intermediates and dries, so we went for the latter. As you saw, it was slippery on them during my out lap but I was fortunate not to hit anything when I spun. After that I wasn't too aggressive on my qualifying lap. It was pretty good, so in the end I guess it was our lucky day."

Former SAUBER driver Giancarlo Fisichella took to the track after Villeneuve and put in what would become the quickest lap of the session. His former teammate Felipe Massa was out next, also on dry weather tyres, and looked to be the beneficiary of even better conditions until out of nowhere came an heavy downpour. Driving the car at a crawl became like driving on ice and Massa was lucky to make it back to the garage in one piece. He did not set a time and will start on the last row alongside Takuma Sato, who crashed.

"There's not much to say," mused the Brazilian. "It was a clear decision to go for dry tyres by the time my turn came about, but it began to pour with rain literally as I came past the pits on my quick lap. It was very slippery, and of course there was no point to finish the lap. I just hope I am luckier in the race."

The session clearly brought both good and bad luck for the SAUBER team, but luckily both drivers got through it unscathed. Team owner Peter Sauber offered his views on this season's qualifying format. "The first of the new-style qualifying sessions brought us the sort of weather challenge we have rarely encountered before. Jacques had to make a difficult choice on tyres and was the first to go for grooves, and he got the maximum out of the car. Felipe had an easier choice given the conditions, but then his run was ruined by the sudden downpour, so he had no chance."

The new rules will combine the results of today's and tomorrow's session for an "aggregate" time which will set the grid for the race. Villeneuve could find himself in good shape for his debut race at SAUBER, but Felipe Massa who had looked so strong all weekend will now have quite a battle ahead of him.

Saturday, Qualifying 1:

Driver	Chassis	Best Time	Position
J. Villeneuve	C24-03	1:36.984 (+3.813)	4
F. Massa	C24-02	No Time	20
Spare Car	C24-01	-	-

Saturday, Free Practice 3:

Driver	Chassis	Position	Best Time	Laps
J. Villeneuve	C24-03	13	No Time	-
F. Massa	C24-02	15	No Time	-
Spare Car	C24-01	-	-	-

Saturday, Free Practice 4:

Driver	Chassis	Position	Best Time	Laps
J. Villeneuve	C24-03	15	1:34.031 (+6.734)	?
F. Massa	C24-02	14	1:31.736 (+4.439)	?
Spare Car	C24-01	-	-	-

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