Ralf fifth in final Chinese qualifying

The final qualifying session would see the slowest driver Zsolt Baumgartner out first. The Minardi driver would finish with a time of 1m:40.240. His car was some ten kilometres slower than the quickest cars. Timo Glock was next out and the Jordan driver would go considerably faster than the Minardi, setting a time of 1m:37.140.

The second Minardi of Bruni was out but he would spin his car at Turn three. He was able to keep going but would he would abort his lap and return to the pits, seeing him start his race from possibly the pit lane. Klein was next and he would manage to go fastest with a time of 1m:36.535. Toyota's Ricardo Zonta would be next to complete his lap and the Brazilian would finish with a time of 1m:35.410 to go fastest by 1.1 seconds.

The next group of drivers would see Jordan's Nick Heidfeld out first. He would set a time of 1m:36.507 to move into second behind Zonta. Renault's Fernando Alonso would set the fastest times in the opening two sectors, finishing with a time of 1m:34.917 to take provisional pole by half a second. Team-mate Villeneuve was next out and the Canadian would be just one tenth behind Alonso after sector one. In the second sector he would be over half a second slower, finishing his lap in second with a time of 1m:35.384.

Coulthard was next and he would be 0.1 up after sector one. But he would lose time in the second. The third would see him regain some of his time to finish in second with a time of 1m:35.029. Jaguar's Mark Webber would go even faster than Alonso in sector one. But he would lose time with a moment at Turn seven running wide, finishing his lap with a time of 1m:35.286 to be third fastest. That would complete the first ten drivers, with the next group seeing Button out first.

Button would start his lap. After sector one he would be close to 0.2 ahead of Alonso. By the second split the BAR driver was still matching Alonso. He would complete his lap with a time of 1m:34.295 to easily go fastest by 0.622. Toyota's Olivier Panis was next and would beat his team-mates time moving into an excellent third, with a time of 1m:34.975. Takuma Sato started his run knowing that he is going to lose ten places on the grid. After sector
two he would be just 0.2 behind his team-mates time. He would finish in fourth with a 1m:34.993, 0.698 down.

Now it was the first of the BMW WilliamsF1 drivers with Juan Pablo starting his lap. But his lap would see him almost half a second down after sector two, finishing with a 1m:34.245 to be only in sixth. He could finish outside the top by the end of qualifying. Would Ralf be able to do any better on his run. Ralf would start his lap and be a tenth down after sector one, a further tenth in sector two, but would finish his lap in second place with a time of 1m:34.891 after a good third sector. Having said that his time was 0.596 slower than Button. With five drivers left to run at least Ralf would be in the top ten.

Massa would start the final group of drivers. His lap would see him set the fastest first sector time by over three tenths. He would lose time in the second. He would finish his lap with as time of 1m:34.759 to be second some 0.46 seconds behind Button. The first of the Ferrari's was out with Rubens Barrichello. His time of 24.7 in the first sector would be two tenths up. At the sector sector he was half a second up. He would finish with the fastest time to be in provisional pole.

Giancarlo Fisichella was next out. He was down on Rubens time after sector one, a further two tenths down after sector two. He would finish his lap in sixth with a time of 1m:34.951. Was he running with a heavy fuel load as he has done is previous races? Now it was down to just Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher. For Kimi his lap would see him two tenths down after sector one, with two more in sector two. But he would put in a quick third sector to be just 0.166 behind Rubens in second position.

The next driver was Michael Schumacher but in a major mistake Michael would spin into the gravel at Turn one. He would make it back onto the track but would abort his run returning to the pits. Michael will start the race from the back of the grid. Replays showed that Michael simply got it wrong. This would see team-mate Barrichello secure pole position.