Montoya only manages 4th in final US qualifying

Minardi's Jos Verstappen was the first driver to attempt to set a time in qualifying, with rain not be a problem as it was in Friday's qualifying session. With a car that had terrible oversteer Jos would complete his lap to set a time of 1:15.360. His teammate Nicolas Kiesa was next. The Dane would cross the line with a time of 1m:15.644, .284 off his team mate's current provisional pole time. Jaguar driver Justin Wilson was next, been 0.530sec up in the first sector to Verstappen's current pole time. He would finish his lap with a time of 1m:13.585. This was 1.775 seconds faster than Verstappen. Jordan's Ralph Firman would move into second with a time of 1m:14.027.

BAR's Jacques Villeneuve was the next driver to attempt a qualifying lap. He would be 0.172 seconds ahead of Wilson's time after the first sector and he would move into first with a time of 1m:13.050, 0.535 ahead of the Jaguar driver.

It was reported that most Michelin supplied drivers would be using the harder of the two dry tyre compounds for the race. The next group of five drivers would be started off by Sauber's Nick Heidfeld. The German would be 0.153sec. up on the first section time of Villeneuve. He would continue to build on his lead after the second sector, but after losing time in the third sector would complete the lap with a time of 1m:13.083, good enough for second.
Toyota's Oliver Panis would start his qualifying lap and would move into first with time 1.130 seconds faster than Villeneuve. Sauber's Heinz Harald Frentzen was next. By the end of the second sector he was 1.2 seconds off Panis's pace. He would finish in fourth, with a time of 1m:13.447.

Ninth driver to go out was Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella. He would drop 0.7sec. just in the first sector, 1.5 down after the second, to finish his lap in sixth with a time of 1m:13.798. With clouds starting to cover the circuit Toyota's Cristiano da Matta, who blew an engine in the earlier practice session, was using the spare car. Da Matta would just be off the pace of his team-mate but it was good enough to move into second with a time of 1m:12.326.

BAR's Jenson Button would be the next onto the track for qualifying lap. Button would be quicker than his team-mate but could only manage third behind the two Toyota drivers. Button's time would be a 1m:12.695. Now it would be the turn of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn would only just be up on Panis after sector two but his lap would see him finish 0.25 ahead of the Toyota to take provisional pole. Raikkonen gained nearly 0.230 seconds in the final sector. Next came championship leader Michael Schumacher.

After the troubles in Saturday's practice he was lacking track time and this showed as he could only manage third, with a time of 1m:12.194. Michael's Ferrari was running a very low wing configuration which hurt his time in the second sector, losing half a second in the second sector. Renault's Fernando Alonso was out and the young Spaniard would push Michael Schumacher into fourth position. His time of 1m:12.087 was good enough for third.

Next came McLaren's David Coulthard who would lose time to his team-mate in the first sector, be down 0.462 in the second sector, completing his lap with a time of 1:12.297 to be just behind Michael in fifth position. With five drivers yet to complete their laps Michael's time was likely to see him even further down the grid.

The final group would see Juan Pablo out first. The Colombian would have to look at securing the pole time what with his rival Raikkonen already holding that honour. Juan Pablo would go quickest in the speed trap 350km/h, 0.075 quicker in the first section. But he would lose time in the second to complete his lap with a time only good enough for third. Not the position he would want to be in as he will also drop down the order.

Team-mate Ralf was down 0.262 in the first sector to Kimi's pole time. Ralf would finish his lap with a time of 1m:12.078 to be fourth pushing Michael another position down the order to be sixth. For Jaguar's mark Webber his lap would start badly losing time right through the lap to finish with a time only good enough for twelfth. Webber was nearly 20km/h down in the speed trap. But could it be the case that he was running a heavier fuel load.

Next came Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello and the Brazilian was faster in the first sector, but he would lose time in the second to finish his lap in second 0.124 behind the McLaren. Rubens was able to run with more downforce after the earlier mistake made with Michael's car. His time was a 1m:11:794. The final driver was Renault's Jarno Trulli. He had dominated the majority of the sessions to this point. Now in qualifying it would all go wrong with the Italian losing time to Raikkonen to finish in tenth.

So the top eight positions for tomorrows race are Raikkonen, Barrichello, Panis, Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Coulthard.