Montoya 6th in opening Belgian qualifying

The final practice session would see Rubens Barrichello fastest, leading team-mate Michael Schumacher. Now it would be Michael who would take to the track first for the opening qualifying session. The rain would start to become heavier as Michael went around on his lap. He would have a trouble free lap ending with a time of 1m:53.755. Next was team-mate Rubens. He would lose time to Michael after the opening two sectors, 1.2 seconds, to finish
his lap with a time of 1m:54.913 to be second.

Next was Renault's Fernando Alonso. His lap would see him almost four seconds behind Michael's time. He would finish with a 1m:58.242, a huge deficit to Michael. Would the Michelin runners have a difficult time with their wet weather tyres. Next was Juan Pablo. He would be just 0.2 behind Michael after sector one. But after sector two it had blown out to be 2.8 seconds behind. He would finish with a time of 1m:56.842 to move in to third. Another Michelin runner was out next, BAR's Jenson Button. He was 0.3 seconds down after sector one. Like the other Michelin runners he would lose a huge amount of time in the second sector to be almost four seconds behind. He would be fifth with a time of 1m:58.837.

Team-mate Takuma Sato was next out and he would lose time to be the slowest driver so far with a time of 1m:58.929. This was 5.174 seconds behind Michael Schumacher's earlier time.

BMW WilliamF1's Antonio Pizzonia was next out. He would be sixth tenths down after sector one. 4.4 seconds slower after sector two, to finish his lap with a time of 1m:59.100. Now it was the turn of Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella. He was another Bridgestone runner. He would complete his alp with a time of 1m:56.068 to move into third. It certainly looked like Bridgestone had the advantage over Michelin in the wet conditions.

Now the first of the McLaren's would come out with David Coulthard at the wheel. One tenth down after sector one, but again he would lose a huge amount of time in sector two to be over three seconds down at the end of his lap. His time was a 1m:56.994 which was good enough for fifth. Jaguar's mark Webber was next and he was six tenths down after sector one, 4.4 seconds down after sector two, and he would set a time of 1m:59.437 to be tenth.

Toyota's Olivier Panis was a second down after sector one, six seconds down after sector two, to finish with a 2m:01.472. It certainly looked like the Michelin supplied teams were having a hard time. Jordan's Nick Heidfeld was out finishing ahead of Panis with a time of 2m:00.166. With the conditions starting to improve marginally it would be Jaguar's Christian Klein next out.

After sector two he would be five seconds off the pace. But at the end of his lap he would at least break the two minute barrier with a time of 1m:59.997 to be eleventh. Now it was Minardi's Gianmaria, who had crashed heavily in the earlier practice session. His time of 2m:03.226 would be nine seconds slower than Michael's. Team-mate Zsolt Baumgartner was next out. His time of 2m:01.195 would see him beat Bruni and Panis and was in thirteenth position.

For Jordan's Giorgio Pantano his lap would see him finish eleventh, a time of 1m:59.442. He would have the Jaguar's either side of him in the times. Renault's Jarno Trulli was out and he would be 0.4 behind after sector one, 4.2 seconds after sector two, and would complete his lap with a time of 1m:58.606 to move into seventh. But he was four tenths behind team-mate Alonso.

With three drivers left it would be Ricardo Zonta out next. He was six tenths down after sector one. He would go off the track in sector two but was able to continue and return to his pit without recording a time. Sauber's Felipe Massa was next and he would be four tenths down in the first sector. Sector two would see him just 1.5 seconds off the fastest time. His time of 1M;56.057 would see him move into third. This would make the top four drivers all Bridgestone runners. The final driver was Kimi Raikkonen. His lap would see him put in an excellent lap in the difficult conditions to move into third position with a 1m:55.371.