Qualifying for the 2005 United States Grand Prix would be run under the cloud of the ongoing tyre issue affecting the Michelin supplied teams. After several tyre failures during Friday practice Michelin had advised their teams to make certain modifications to allow the teams to run with the tyres supplied for the race at Indianapolis.

Even though the BMW WilliamsF1 team had said that they had no problems with their tyres, running in either a high or low tyre pressure configuration, the end of qualifying would see both cars down the order with Mark Webber in ninth and Nick Heidfeld in fifteenth. Mark was particularly fast in the second sector but lost time in the others.

Whether their poor grid positions is related to having to run their cars with a different setup is unknown, but their performances must have been disappointing.

At the end of qualifying it would be Toyota's Jarno Trulli who would secure the team's first ever pole position. Despite having to make changes to the setup of his car, after having seen his team-mate Ralf Schumacher crash after a tyre failure, it made no difference to the Toyota driver's performance with his qualifying time been a 1M;10.625.

In second came McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen with a lap of 1m:10.694, only 0.069 seconds behind Trulli. In third was BAR's Jenson Button. His team had followed the suggestions of Michelin but like Trulli it did not appear to affect his pace, finishing with a lap time of 1m:11.277.

In fourth came the first of the Renault's with Giancarlo Fisichella finishing with a time of 1m:11.290. Splitting the other Renault came the Bridgestone shod Ferrari of Michael Schumacher who finished in fifth with a time of 1m:11.369. In sixth was the second Renault of Fernando Alonso with a time of 1m:11.380. Both Renault drivers may see their grid positions come to nothing if their team withdraws from the race as a result of the tyre issue for the Michelin supplied teams.

The second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello was to finish in seventh with a time of 1m:11.431. The second BAR of Takuma Sato was eighth, while Mark Webber was ninth with a time of 1m:11.527. Making up the top ten was Sauber's Felipe Massa.

With the withdrawal of Ralf Schumacher, as a precaution after his Friday accident, Ricardo Zonta, would take his place for this weekend. Ricardo would finish in thirteenth. For Juan Pablo Montoya the penalty of having to run early in the session, after his disqualification in Canada, and this would see him finish in only eleventh with a time of 1m:11.681.