Montoya takes pole in Italy

With fine weather, qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix began., with Minardi's Mark Webber the first man out on the circuit. With the BMW engines in the WilliamsF1 cars having some extra revs for qualifying, confirmed by BMW's Dr. Mario Theissen. Webber would set a time of 1m:24.960. Fifteen minutes into the session and only Webber had set a time. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was out on the track, joined by Coulthard. Both Ferrari drivers would also take to the track. Barrichello would over brake in his first lap and throws it away. Raikkonen sets a 1m:22.530, Coulthard 1m:23.564, and Michael Schumacher a 1m:25.588.

Montoya, on new tyres, would go quickest with a 1m:21.1, the fastest time by nearly 1.4 secs. The BMW V10 engine was hitting 18.900 revs, incredible. Ralf would go second, only 0.2 behind Juan Pablo. But Michael would pass Juan Pablo's time by 0.1 secs to go fastest. So the order was Michael Schumacher, Montoya, Ralf, de la Rosa, Irvine, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, McNish, Salo, Panis, Massa, Button, Coulthard, Webber, and Yoong.

Jacques Villeneuve would move up into ninth, with Sato fifteenth and Trulli eleventh. Villeneuve's second flyer brings him up into fifth. Barrichello would posts 1m:21.225 to take third, 0.209 behind the lead. Coulthard would move up from eighteenth to eighth. Jaguar's De la Rosa was now in fifth while BAR's Jacques Villeneuve was able to set a time good enough for sixth.

Raikkonen was now in fifth, 0.7 behind the leaders, but it was believed that McLaren was on the harder Michelin compound. In a change at the top Ralf would go fastest by 0.188 secs, and Juan Pablo was up into second 2nd with nineteen minutes remaining of the session.

The top ten were Ralf (1:20.542), Montoya (0.2), Michael Schumacher (0.2), Barrichello (0.7), Raikkonen (1.2), Irvine (1.3), de la Rosa (1.5), Villeneuve (1.6), Coulthard (1.7), and Salo (1.8). Barrichello would improve his time, but not his grid position. Raikkonen was up into fifth, half a second quicker than team-mate Coulthard.

With thirteen minutes left Ralf and Juan Pablo would take to the track, joined by Michael Schumacher. Juan Pablo would be ahead ahead at T2 by 0.094 secs, and would go fastest by 0.278 secs. This time would be the fastest lap in terms of average speed.

Barrichello was now third despite a lap with some mistakes. Michael Schumacher's last lap was the quickest in sector 1, and he would set a time of 1m:20.521, but that was only enough for second. Only Juan Pablo and Ralf could now challenge for take pole as the Ferraris have already completed their allocation of laps.

In the final minutes Raikkonen would go off into the gravel at Curva Grande, stopping the session two minutes prior to the end. Kimi was okay after his accident. Both Sato and Raikkonen collided, when Raikkonen did not see the Jordan driver.

The order was Montoya (1:20.264), Michael Schumacher (0.3), Ralf (0.3), Barrichello (0.5), Raikkonen (0.9), Irvine (1.5), Coulthard, de la Rosa, Villeneuve, Salo (2.1), Fisichella, McNish, Massa, Trulli, Heidfeld (2.4), Panis, Button, Sato, Webber, and Yoong (4.9). The session would restart with only two minutes left, allowing for only one run. Both BMW WilliamsF1 drivers would come back out on the track close together for their final flying lap, with Juan Pablo leading the way.

But neither driver would improve leaving Juan Pablo on pole, his seventh of the season. Juan Pablo's average speed of 259.379 km/h setting a new all-time record, eclipsing Keke Rosberg’s 258.983 km/h average that was set at Silverstone in 1985. Jaguar's Eddie Irvine would finish in sixth with team-mate de la Rosa eighth, an encouraging performance for the team. A great performance from the BMW WilliamsF1 team but the question now is whether today's results can be turned into a race victory, lets hope so.