Ralf third in European GP Pre Qualifying

The opening qualifying session for the European Grand Prix would see Ralf Schumacher finish an excellent third but team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya continued to have problems with his car and could only manage ninth some 1.4 seconds off the quickest time.

The first runner was Monaco Grand Prix winner Jarno Trulli. He would set a benchmark time of 29.5 seconds through sector one which was four-tenths off the best seen in practice. He would set a time of 1m:29.905. Button was next and he had set the fastest time so far this weekend with a 1m:28.827.

He would be 29.1 through sector one, 0.864 seconds up in sector two and would finish with a brilliant time of 1m:28.816. This was even quicker than his time this morning.

Rubens Barrichello was next out on his flying lap. He would finish second by two-tenths from Button. Juan Montoya was next, despite not having set a time in practice this morning. Montoya was having difficulties with his car, but even so he was putting in a competitive time. He would be just 0.063 down after sector two and would go on to finish with a time of 1m:29.092 to move into third.

Sauber's Felipe Massa was next and after sector one was down by almost a second. He would finish in fifth with a time of 1m:31.8. Massa was followed by Toyota's Cristiano Da Matta who would go fourth with a time of 1m:29.272. Jordan's Nick Heidfeld was next and he would finish slowest in seventh.

Da Matta's team-mate Olivier Panis was out and was just 0.215 down after sector one, 0.27 down after sector two, and would finish with a time of 1m:29.243 to be just ahead of Da Matta. Minardi's Baumgartner was out on the track he was 1.5 seconds down in sector one. He would go slowest.

Ralf Schumacher was out and looking to beat Montoya's time. ralf would run wide in turn one and was already 0.176 off the pace in sector one. But he was able to bring that margin down in sector two to be just 0.045 off the pace. Ralf would finish his lap going fastest by 0.161 seconds after he had a great third sector.

Next would be Ralf's brother Michael who was 0.174 up in sector one, 0.350 up in sector two, and he would finish with a time of 1m:28.278 to go fastest. Fernando Alonso was next and would finish his lap running wide in the final corner and moving into fifth, but 0.8 down on Michael.

For McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen his weekend had shown signs of been very competitive and his lap would continue this. He would finish his lap and go fourth some 0.6 seconds behind Michael. Minardi's Bruni would finish in fourteenth, slower than his team mate. Jordan's Pantano was a tenth quicker than team-mate Heidfeld through sector one finishing in twelfth but he was 2.7 seconds off the very quick time set by Michael. Jaguar's Mark Webber was off the pace finishing with a time of 1:30.579, some 2.8 seconds off the quickest time.

Next came BAR's Takuma Sato and in what was to be a very quick lap he would go fastest pushing Michael down to second. He would seta time of 1m:27.691 which was a massive 0.587 quicker that Michael's time.

David Coulthard would finish fourth, ahead of Button and Raikkonen. Next was Sauber's Fisichella but Coulthard's McLaren was to stop on his cooling down lap bringing out the red flag as Coulthard's car was pushed off the track. Fisichella was return to the track for the second time finishing twelfth but he was to lose ten places on the grid after having to change his engine on Friday morning. Jaguar's Christian Klien was next and was 2.7 seconds off Sato's pace.

The final qualifying run will be an interesting session. Will Ralf be able to secure a front row starting position on the grid and can Juan Pablo turn his weekend around.