For the pair their Saturday practice sessions would see them drop down the times so their performances in qualifying were that much more satisfying. Prior to the start of qualifying it looked like Ferrari's Michael Schumacher would have no problems clinching pole, but he was to have gear selection problems with his regular car and was forced to use the spare.

For Juan Pablo he would finish qualifying very satisfied with the result. He did not have the best of times during qualifying with two of his four runs spoilt by problems.

In a post qualifying interview Montoya would say: " I’ve got to say I’m very pleased. I think that after all the problems we had this morning we didn’t really have any good set-up information or anything, so we came into the qualifying a bit wondering what was going to happen. On the first run I made a mistake, the second run was a bit better, the third run, you know, was the pole run, and it got better and better and better. Between we two drivers there’s nothing in it really. It’s a matter of luck and I’ve got to say I was very lucky to get it. It’s great for the team."

As for his problems Juan Pablo would explain: "On the first run I just had too much understeer. In the last run, I just braked a bit later. I could have made the corner but I didn’t make the corner, but I had already decided." He explained how the team made changes to his car during the session. Juan Pablo said: "Today, yes, we did quite a lot of changes every run, so every time I went out it was a bit different, but it wasn’t such a big deal."

As for how he felt about his prospects come the race Juan Pablo added: "I’ve got to say that we are pretty confident we are going to get to the end of the race. I think it’s going to be a very hard race for us. I think tyres are going to play a big part, either one or the other, so we will see what happens."

As for his views on tomorrow's race Juan Pablo felt that it would be difficult but been on the front row certainly helps their chances.

Juan Pablo added: "I think it is going to be a tough race and I have got to say for qualifying we were honestly looking to try to be in the second row and not in the third row. I thought it was going to be a much harder qualifying and it was really close with Ralf and it was really hard from that perspective. When you are fighting for pole it is a whole lot easier than when you are fighting for fifth or sixth, so I am very pleased that the team actually pulled it off."

For Ralf Schumacher he would spend half the session with provisional pole but he did not get in his final run. This was down to the fact that Ralf never planned to have four runs, just three.

Ralf explained: "It was never planned to have four runs. After being on pole, we decided to stay on three runs. It was a bit unlucky, or whatever. He was simply strong and that’s why he went quicker. But for the team in general it’s perfect to be on the first row. We didn’t expect it to be honest after this morning, we thought we have to watch ourselves to be on the second row and not to be past but it turned out to be not so good. It was a bit surprising but the team did a great job.

"We were in the lead and when you are in the lead you just wait a while. We lost pole because of this, but this was in the team and it is so tight you can’t do anything about it and in the end we have the first row, so that doesn’t really matter too much. All the runs were good. I didn’t have to change anything on the car, just went quicker on the run, which is normal because the circuit improves and you push slightly harder each run."

Ralf's final comments concerned the fact that Michael Schumacher, Ralf's brother, is right behind the WilliamsF1 pair in third position. Ralf said: "It doesn’t really matter I guess, but for the team it is certainly nice that the two of us are in front, which makes it hopefully more difficult for Michael to get past."