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October 8-9, 2005
Grand Prix of Japan (Suzuka)

Toyota-Honda front row in Japan
Ralf beats weather - and BAR - to pole position

A fantastic Japanese Grand Prix is in prospect, after a topsy-turvy qualifying session at Suzuka, which started out wet and later became soaked.

Ralf Schumacher will start from pole position for Toyota after sliding his way round to 1m 46.106s just after the halfway mark, and he will have Jenson Button in the BAR Honda for company on the front row just to even out the Japanese manufacturers’ battle. The Englishman lapped in 1m 46.141s just after Schumacher Jnr had run.

What of McLaren and Renault? Well, Giancarlo Fisichella will start third after lapping in 1m 46.276s, and he was the last of the drivers on intermediate tyres to get their run in before the wet track became saturated when the rain returned.

Michael Schumacher was the first of the final quartet to go out, and by the time the Ferrari was up to speed its full wet tyres were throwing a roostertail all the way round the lap. The former champion lost a huge amount of time at the hairpin, and his lap came up as 1m 52.676s only moments after Fisichella had set his time. Fernando Alonso, next up, fared even worse, pushing the Renault to 1m 54.667s. Then Kimi Raikkonen did 2m 02.309s, but at least he will only lose three grid positions (from 17th to 20th) after his Friday engine change. Juan Pablo Montoya was the last man out as he was the victor at Interlagos, but only bothered to do one lap before coming back into the pits.

JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
QUALIFYING SESSION
Saturday 08 October 2005

Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro had difficult final free practice at Suzuka due to the rain. However they managed to complete several flying laps to fine-tune the cars to their qualifying and race set-up and showed very good pace considering the wet conditions. In qualifying, Karthikeyan took advantage of the weather conditions, had a very good lap and set an encouraging time of
1.48.718. He will start tomorrow’s race on 11th position, the best qualifying place for Jordan Grand Prix this season. Unfortunately, team mate Monteiro made a mistake in his out lap on a slippery track and was unable to restart. He will therefore start from the back of the grid. Both drivers were nevertheless satisfied with their choice of Bridgestone tyres, which worked particularly well in the
rain and are confident that they have a reliable car for tomorrow's 53-lap Grand Prix.

Driver 3rd Free Practice 4th Free Practice Qualifying
Narain Karthikeyan 1.50.811, 06th 1.50.150, 2nd 1:48.718, 11th
Tiago Monteiro 1.52.023, 09th 1.51.223, 6th no time, 18th

TEAM QUOTES ON THE JAPANESE GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING SESSION
NARAIN KARTHIKEYAN (EJ5B/01)
“I am really happy to qualify 11th as this is Jordan’s best qualifying position this year. My lap was clean and I genuinely beat some teams, which are normally ahead of us, in the same weather conditions. I was also second this morning on full wet conditions. It is a pity the track was not wetter to use the extreme wet tyres in qualifying, as they worked pretty well this morning and they would have been of a bigger advantage. The conditions were quite tricky because the track was more slippery and greasy than this morning as there was not as much water. I did not want to push too hard in order not to make any mistakes and I am satisfied with my time. Let’s see now what the weather will bring for the race tomorrow.”

So if the two McLaren drivers and Alonso weren’t joining Fisichella on row two, who was? The answer was Christian Klien, who got his Red Bull round in a solid 1m 46.464s to dislodge local hero Takuma Sato, who had only moments earlier recorded 1m 46.841s to the delight of the large crowd. David Coulthard, who had set the pace as the first man out, will start sixth after posting 1m 46.892s in his Red Bull.

Mark Webber was on strong form for Williams with a lap in 1m 47.233s which also included the fastest sector one time up to that point, while Jacques Villeneuve coped with serious oversteer to grab eighth for Sauber in 1m 47.233s. Team mate Felipe Massa had the opposite problem with massive understeer on his C24, but the Brazilian’s 1m 48.278s held up for 10th place. They were split by Rubens Barrichello, the older Brazilian taking his Ferrari round in 1m 48.278s.

Narain Karthikeyan continued his excellent morning form by taking 11th place for Jordan in 1m 48.718s, and Antonio Pizzonia’s 1m 48.898s left him 12th. The Williams driver was lucky to get away with a spin at Degner 2 on his out lap.

Christijan Albers put his Minardi PS05 a very good 13th on 1m 50.843s, which put him on row seven with Schumacher Snr for company. Robert Doornbos was two seconds slower than his team mate but starts 15th alongside Alonso.

Degner 2 proved to be the demise of both Jarno Trulli and Tiago Monteiro. The Italian was going well when he lost control of his Toyota there, while Monteiro fell victim to the slippery surface there on his out lap. Trulli will start 18th, alongside Montoya, while Monteiro will share the back row with Raikkonen.

The weather forecast is for more rain tomorrow afternoon, so this will be a race in which anything can happen. But as Raikkonen, Montoya and Alonso seek to come from behind, Fisichella will have the burden of upholding Renault’s quest to maximise this opportunity to regain their lost constructors’ championship lead. Button, meanwhile, will be looking for his and BAR’s first win, while Schumacher Jnr will be doing likewise for Toyota.

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