By Nick Sparkes
September 10 2005

Panasonic Toyota Racing was hoping for a more active day when they awoke on Saturday morning. Luckily the rain had cleared, leaving a damp track with a drying line. This allowed Toyota to put in a healthy number of laps in both sessions, putting both cars in the top six just before Qualifying.

The first session of the day was a little bit tricky for some, as the track dried lap by lap, meaning the fastest times were set in the final few minutes. Toyota drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher were able to get to work rounding out the laps in their TF105. Ralf ended up ninth whilst Jarno was just behind in eleventh. Up front McLaren were keen on not letting Fernando Alonso walk his way into the record books by going fastest.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	K. Raikkonen	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:48.125	7
2	J. Montoya	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:48.516	9
3	G. Fisichella	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	1:48.883	8
4	F. Alonso	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	1:49.286	7
5	M. Schumacher	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1:49.520	11
6	J. Button	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:49.780	8
7	M. Webber	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:50.066	5
8	D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing	1:50.139	14
9	R. Schumacher	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:50.403	8
10	A. Pizzonia	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:50.449	9
11	J. Trulli	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:50.451	9
12	T. Sato	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:50.750	10
13	F. Massa	Sauber Petronas	1:50.877	8
14	C. Klien	Red Bull Racing	1:50.907	14
15	J. Villeneuve	Sauber Petronas	1:51.655	8
16	T. Monteiro	Jordan Grand Prix	1:51.953	9
17	C. Albers	Minardi F1 Team	1:53.250	8
18	R. Doornbos	Minardi F1 Team	1:53.278	8
19	N. Karthikeyan	Jordan Grand Prix	1:53.480	5
20	R. Barrichello	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	no time	1

The final session of the weekend took place in dry, allowing everybody to try out their slicks. Like before, everybody completed a healthy number of laps trying to make up for lost time yesterday. Jarno Trulli was the first Toyota driver to put a smile on everybody’s faces, taking his TF105 to second on the time sheets, only to be pushed to third by Kimi Raikkonen in the dying minutes. Ralf Schumacher also enjoyed a string of quick laps, moving him up into sixth. On top was Fernando Alonso, the first none-McLaren to be fastest all weekend.

Qualifying this afternoon should be very interesting, with the treat of rain still a likely possibility. Toyota are looking stronger than ever, with a car which seems to work well on Spa’s legendary circuit in the dry, although falls back in the wet due to their limited amount of testing. Whatever happens, if last years Qualifying session is anything to go by, Toyota could still find themselves on pole position for the second time this year.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	F. Alonso	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	1:46.307	14
2	K. Raikkonen	West McLaren Mercedes	1:46.641	11
3	J. Trulli	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:46.681	15
4	J. Montoya	West McLaren Mercedes	1:46.858	8
5	G. Fisichella	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	1:47.049	16
6	R. Schumacher	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:47.054	16
7	J. Button	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:47.419	14
8	T. Sato	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:47.507	15
9	M. Schumacher	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1:47.773	12
10	R. Barrichello	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1:47.991	14
11	A. Pizzonia	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:48.092	13
12	J. Villeneuve	Sauber Petronas	1:48.204	15
13	M. Webber	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:48.213	11
14	F. Massa	Sauber Petronas	1:48.551	16
15	D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing	1:48.866	12
16	C. Klien	Red Bull Racing	1:48.877	11
17	C. Albers	Minardi F1 Team	1:49.166	12
18	R. Doornbos	Minardi F1 Team	1:49.208	15
19	T. Monteiro	Jordan Grand Prix	1:50.740	13
20	N. Karthikeyan	Jordan Grand Prix	1:51.594	14

Times courtesy of toyota-f1.com