Montoya fastest in opening qualifying

By Andrew Hooper
March 6 2004

	Australian GP Saturday Qualifying Part One
	For the first time qualifying will be split into two session. The result of the previous race will determine who runs first which means that Rubens Barrichello will be out first following his win in Japan last year. Ferrari have decided to use the harder of the two Bridgestone compounds. For Barrichello his first sector time would be 28.943 sec, 0.6 secs off his practice best. Barrichello sets a time of 1m:25.992. For Jenson Button he would be forced to switch to his spare car after damaging his regular car but would use he same engine in the back of his car. Raikkonen was next out. Raikkonen would set a time ahead of Barrichello, for the first time this weekend with a 1m:25.592. Next would be McLaren's Coulthard who was 0.133 up in sector one. He would go second by 0.06 seconds. BAR's Jenson Button would go third with the fastest time in the second sector. Trulli was next 0.531 down after sector one. He would finish fifth, well down on the four drivers ahead of him. BAR's Takuma Sato was 0.8 seconds behind after sector two. He would finish 1.1 seconds at the end of the lap. For Toyota's Da Matta he again would struggle and was 1.66 secs down after sector two. He would finish eighth. For Michael Schumacher he would be 0.052sec up after sector one, 0.325 after sector two. He would finish first by three tenths from Raikkonen. Next was Jordan's Nick Heidfeld who would go eighth. For Toyota's Olivier Panis he would move into seventh ahead of Renault's Jarno Trulli. For Jaguar's Mark Webber he would come away with sixth. Next came Ralf Schumacher he would set the fastest time in the final sector to be just one tenth behind brother Michael. A very impressive lap for the BMW WilliamsF1 driver. Eighth for Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella. Renault's Fernando Alonso would push Barrichello down from sixth. For Juan Pablo Montoya he would be slightly up after the first sector but lose time in the second. But he would pick it up in the final sector to go fastest. Things were looking for the Colombian. For Felipe Massa his run would see him in twelfth. Rookie Christian Klein his his first qualifying for Jaguar would be fourteenth. Fellow rookie Giorgio Pantano would go eighteenth for Jordan. The two Minardi's of Brunei and Baumgartner would fill the last two positions. So as the team prepared for the next qualifying run it would be Juan Pablo Montoya at the front ahead of Michael with Ralf third. A good start for the BMW WilliamsF1 team.
	P. No Driver Team - Engine Tyres Times Ave/Gaps Laps 1. 3 MONTOYA WilliamsF1 BMW M 1'25"226 224.002 Km/h 3 2. 1 M. SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'25"301 + 0'00"075 3 3. 4 R. SCHUMACHER WilliamsF1 BMW M 1'25"445 + 0'00"219 3 4. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'25"592 + 0'00"366 3 5. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M 1'25"652 + 0'00"426 3 6. 9 BUTTON BAR Honda M 1'25"898 + 0'00"672 3 7. 8 ALONSO Renault M 1'25"928 + 0'00"702 3 8. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 1'25"992 + 0'00"766 3 9. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 1'26"232 + 0'01"006 3 10. 11 FISICHELLA Sauber Petronas B 1'26"286 + 0'01"060 3 11. 10 SATO BAR Honda M 1'26"737 + 0'01"511 3 12. 12 MASSA Sauber Petronas B 1'26"833 + 0'01"607 3 13. 17 PANIS Toyota M 1'27"253 + 0'02"027 3 14. 15 KLIEN Jaguar Cosworth M 1'27"258 + 0'02"032 3 15. 7 TRULLI Renault M 1'27"357 + 0'02"131 3 16. 18 HEIDFELD Jordan Ford B 1'27"469 + 0'02"243 3 17. 16 DA MATTA Toyota M 1'28"274 + 0'03"048 3 18. 19 PANTANO Jordan Ford B 1'29"156 + 0'03"930 3 19. 20 BRUNI Minardi Cosworth B 1'30"912 + 0'05"686 3 20. 21 BAUMGARTNER Minardi Cosworth B 1'32"606 + 0'07"380 3

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