Pole position in Austria for Rubens Barrichello

Michael Schumacher had to be content with third place on the grid in Austria after setting his best run in the spare car on his final lap. "I just could not get the time out of my race car. There was something wrong with my car, but I don't know what. It was not an obvious problem, but it must be something which is why I used the T-car," he said. Traffic and a spin on his second and last runs did not help his chances either, "Those problems and do not forget that Rubens drove very well, was why there was such a big gap," pointed out Michael, who was seven tenth's of a second off his team-mate's best lap.

Ralf Schumacher took the outside of the front row for BMW-Williams, which he had not expected to do before the session. "I have to admit I was surprised to be so well up, but as it got hotter and hotter throughout the session it suited our tyres and the chassis was working well," said Ralf, who was just two tenth's of the pole time.

Juan Pablo Montoya had a bad start after struggling to cure a misfire and he eventually took his spare car to claim fourth fastest, the Colombian hoping that hot weather and more rubber on the track would pay dividends in the race.

Things went well for the Sauber team as Nick Heidfeld claimed fifth place to head McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, while Filippe Massa's Sauber got the better of David Coulthard's McLaren to fill the next two rows of the grid, all eight cars under last year's pole time, Sauber's new aerodynamic package and updated Ferrari engines already paying dividends.

The final two places in the top ten fell to Olivier Panis in the BAR-Honda, just beating Toyota rival Mika Salo to head the fifth row. It was a disappointed Heinz-Harald Frentzen who headed his teammate Bernoldi on the sixth row of the grid. Disappointed to be 11th after setting the fifth fastest time in the morning and hopeful of a strong place in the top 10 in qualifying. He had to make repairs to his race car when, like Barrichello, he went over the gravel trap on the outside of the last corner when he hit the same oil slick that stopped the session for 10 minute for clean-up operations. "The off damaged the undertray and barge boards and I lost my rhythm after going off, " said Heinz.

The Benton-Renault team were not as high as they had hoped with Jenson Button taking 13th position, three places quicker than Jarno Trulli who had to use his spare car after his first run when his car's engine blew up in the final corner causing him to spin.