Qualifying went to plan for Montoya

As for how qualifying turned out Juan Pablo said: "We were really expecting the rain a bit earlier and that is why we went out early. It's quite strange because everyone was standing on the pit wall and I was in the car straight away, and said are we going and nobody has been on the track so it was a bit weird, but everything went quite well."

He added: "I have got to say everything went really smooth. The car is quick, it has been good all weekend. Yesterday we were really competitive, today as well."

As for his qualifying lap it was a case of knowing that if he put all the sectors together he would be able to go quicker than he had previously. Juan Pablo was able to put together that one good lap that would see him on pole beating his rival Michael Schumacher

Juan Pablo said: "It was a very good lap. We thought it was going to rain a bit earlier so we went quite early to put a decent lap in and make sure if it did rain we had a good lap, then Michael went and did the same time as in the morning. I knew I had a bit of time to improve, actually quite a lot, even from the morning, I gave it a good go and actually it was quite good. But if we really put the sectors together we could have gone a bit quicker as well. It will be quite an interesting race tomorrow, I think."

As for which tyres he will use in the race Juan Pablo said that this decision was made very early during practice, where he did a comparison between the two types of tyres available.

Juan Pablo said: " I think yesterday we knew which tyre we were going to use pretty much straight away. We did a comparison and we knew what we wanted from the tyre and that is the way we choose it really."

As for his speed during qualifying it was not something that Juan Pablo was able to pass any judgement on. But it all comes down to what sort of balance you can achieve with new tyres as it is with these that qualifying times would be set.

Juan Pablo added: " I think the car goes quicker and quicker and it is very difficult to really tell how quick it is going to go. It is just basically the new tyres. They give you a lot of extra grip...it's quite difficult to balance the car because you are always on old tyres, so when you put new tyres on the balance shifts a bit and if you can really get the balance right with the new tyres it really pays off.

"It is very difficult to predict what is going to happen. You can't say it is going to be 12.5 or 13, you know. Yesterday everybody was running with fuel, so it is very difficult to say how quickly you are going to run the next day."

Whatever the exact nature of his ability to set a time that would see him on pole it certainly was a day where everything came together for the Colombian. Now the next big test is the run to the first corner. With his rival Michael Schumacher second on the grid the outcome of the race could be determined by who makes the best start.

In Monaco, despite having pole position, Juan Pablo's race did not get off to a good start when David Coulthard was able to beat him into the first corner. From comments made by Juan Pablo his ability to get away from the line is down to his traction control system, which for most teams still seems to be a bit of hit and miss affair.