With track temperatures of 40 degrees Centigrade qualifying would see Ferrari's Michael Schumacher first to take to the track and he would complete a clean lap with a time of 1m:21.268. Next would be Juan Pablo, setting a better first and second sector times to finish the lap with the fastest time to take provisional pole. His time of 1m:20.656 was 0.6 ahead of Michael. Next was McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen but the Finn would lose time to Juan Pablo in sector one. He would continue to lose time in sector two seeing him finish 1.3 seconds slower than Montoya. The McLaren appeared to suffer from large amounts of understeer during its lap.

Ralf Schumacher would now take to the track, but his lap would be ruined when he would go straight across the first chicane. Ralf would have his time disallowed. Ralf would complete his lap and move into third with a time of 1m:21.966, but the times would not register Ralf and he would drop down the order was the other drivers completed their runs. Ralf would have to start first in tomorrows' qualifying.

Renault's Fernando Alonso would be next and like Ralf his lap would be ruined but this time it would be when he would take to the gravel in sector two. He would be a huge 1.5 seconds behind Juan Pablo in fifth. For Rubens Barrichello, fastest in practice, his lap would see him down on Juan Pablo in sector one but he would pick up time in sector two. He would complete his lap just one tenth behind Juan Pablo, but he would be 0.5 ahead of Michael.

For McLaren's David Coulthard his lap would be a handful, making a mistake at the first chicane and finishing his lap down in sixth, but over two seconds behind Juan Pablo with a time of 1m:23.154. Next came Renault's Jarno Trulli and he would move ahead of his team-mate Alonso to be fifth. He was 1.5 seconds slower than Juan Pablo.

For Jaguar's Mark Webber his qualifying lap would see him lose 0.5 in the first sector. But he would pick up time in the rest of his lap to finish in fifth with an identical time as Raikkonen's. The final driver in the first group of ten was BAR's Jenson Button. Jenson would complete a clean lap but could only manage eighth.

Next came Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella. The winner of the Brazilian Grand Prix would set a time of 1m:24.179 to take tenth and last position. He was a massive 3.5 seconds behind Juan Pablo. For Toyota's Da Matta he would set an encouraging fastest first sector time, but he would lose 0.5 in sector two. Despite this he would finish an encouraging fourth.

The fact that the team had tested at the circuit appears to have helped. For Sauber's Heinz Harald Frentzen his lap would see him finish ninth. Both Sauber drivers had complained about the difficult handling of their cars so his time was acceptable. Da Matta's team-mate Olivier Panis was out next but he was not able to match his team-mates time finish in tenth with a time of 1m:22.372. Panis would lose time in the last sector.

The final driver in this group was BAR's Jacques Villeneuve. The Canadian was not able to match Button's time and despite picking up time in sector two would be 0.5 behind Jenson in twelfth.

For Nick Heidfeld his lap would see him slower than team-mate Frentzen finishing in twelfth while Heinz was ninth. For Minardi's Jos Verstappen he was to have technical difficulties and would not take to the track recording no time for the session, joining Ralf at the bottom of the times. For Justin Wilson, with team-mate Webber in sixth, his lap would see him two seconds down after the first two sectors. He would finish in fifteenth.

Minardi was able to get their second driver onto the track and Kiesa would he would complete his lap without making any mistakes but was 5.5 seconds off Juan Pablo's time to be seventeenth. The final diver was Jordan's Zsolt Baumgartner. He was only competing in his second Grand Prix, with regular driver Ralph Firman not been cleared to race in Italy due to his accident in Hungary. The Jordan driver would set a time of 1m:24.872.

So the end of qualifying would see Juan Pablo lead today's qualifying. He was 0.612 seconds faster than Michael Schumacher, his closest rival in the fight for the championship title. Ralf Schumacher was unlucky, being disqualified after having missed the first chicane.