WilliamsF1 4th & 5th after Belgian Qualifying

Based on their practice times it was not surprising to see the WilliamsF1 drivers in fourth and fifth but they did reduce the gap to the leading Ferrari and McLaren drivers. Ralf would set personal best times but in reality neither WilliamsF1 driver was really in contention for pole.

According to Patrick Head, WilliamsF1 Technical Director, Ralf and Juan Pablo decided to use the harder tyre compound. With the temperature only barely above 20 degrees, however, the asphalt did not get warm enough to enable this tyre variant to perform optimally.

Juan Pablo may have done better, or at least he may have felt that he could have, but on one fast lap near the end of the session he was blocked by Kimi Raikkonen at the Bus Stop chicane which saw Juan Pablo less than happy. In a radio conversation with Patrick Head he would call Raikkonen a “fu**ing idiot."

The evenness of the two BMW WilliamsF1 Team drivers is getting more and more obvious. With his fourth place, Ralf was able to draw level with Juan Pablo in the team’s internal qualifying duel. Each of the two drivers now has finished seven times ahead of his team mate. Said Patrick Head jokingly after the end of the qualifying: “One thing is for sure: at the end of the year, they won’t be level, for the season has 17 races and that is an uneven number.”

At the end of qualifying it was Michelin who would have the over their Japanese rivals Bridgestone.

In front of the WilliamsF1 drivers were both the Ferrari drivers with Michael Schumacher securing his first ever pole position at Spa-Francorchamps. Michael would beat McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen by about half a second.

Schumacher completed only nine laps to set the fastest time finishing with a time of 1m:43.726. He tried to set a faster time in the closing moments of the session but was stopped by the chequered flag.

Despite trying to improve in the closing moments of the session Raikkonen could not take pole from the Ferrari driver. Despite this the McLaren team were pleased and encouraged by his times.

Rubens Barrichello finished in third place but did not have the pace to match Raikkonen. David Coulthard had a difficult session having problems with his car, forcing him to change to the T-car in the middle of the session. He wound up sixth, 1.03 seconds slower than the pole time.

In a reversal of his from during practice Renault's Jarno Trulli would finish in seventh, followed by Eddie Irvine who took eighth. The changes made to the suspension certainly improved the performance of the R3. Team-mate Pedro de la Rosa was not far behind in eleventh.

Toyota’s Mika Salo put in a solid performance to finish ninth, followed by Jenson Button in the second Renault, De la Rosa, and BAR's Jacques Villeneuve who would spin off during the session.

Allan McNish finished in thirteenth, which must have been disappointing after his good from during practice. Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella was fourteenth with his session been spoiled by a spin and having to return to the pits to use the spare.

BAR's Olivier Panis suffered a second engine blow-up in two days and ended up fifteenth, ahead of Takuma Sato. Sauber's terrible weekend continued with Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld way down the grid in seventeenth and eighteenth. Minardi's Mark Webber was nineteenth, six tenths ahead of team-mate Anthony Davidson.