By Michelin Sport
May 27 2006

World championship leader Fernando Alonso will start tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix from the front row of the grid after posting a 1:13.962 lap in today's qualifying session. He was fractionally slower than Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), but the Spaniard was unable to improve his time at the end of the session because Schumacher ran wide and stopped at La Rascasse. The resultant yellow warning flags obliged the following drivers to slow down.

Six Michelin drivers from four partner teams have secured places in the top 10. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella, Juan Pablo Montoya, Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard.

Nick Shorrock
Formula One Director
Michelin

"The session was not as traumatic as many had anticipated in terms of on-track incidents, although there was one at the end that obviously compromised some of our partners' efforts to improve their lap times.

"Technically speaking, our products performed very satisfactorily and we have had no problems at all. Between them our six partners have chosen to use two different types of tyre tomorrow and both have shown themselves to be ideally suited to the conditions.

"But of course, while everyone at Michelin has proven their professionalism today, our main thoughts have been for the family of Edouard Michelin. While we haven't taken pole position, I hope that we can be successful in tomorrow's race out of respect for a fantastic leader and a great man."