Kimi Raikkonen set a blistering pace today at Imola, taking the overnight provisional Pole Position by just three-thousandths of a second from Championship leader Fernando Alonso. Raikkonen recorded a best lap of 1:19.886s for McLaren who seem to have a car than can handle the high kerbing better than any of its rivals. With Alonso second just a fraction of a second down it’s all to play for for the front two runners come Sunday qualification.
"It will be close between me and him tomorrow and we will see what we can do," said Raikkonen. "The car is much better than it was in Bahrain and it seems to suit this circuit. The speed is good and in the race we are usually very good so we should be in a very good position."
Michael Schumacher put in a very solid lap in his Ferrari to qualify in third position but the F2005 still does not quite have the pace of the leaders as the 2004 race winner lapped nearly four-tenths off Raikkonen’s pace.
Mark Webber underlined what a sensational qualifier he is by extracting the maximum form his BMW Williams Michelin package. Taking the out lap very slowly the Australian was able to find great pace as the lap unfolded. Fourth position was again a fine effort from the Williams driver.
Jenson Button will be disappointed to be just fifth fastest in this qualifying session. The BAR Honda driver set the pace in final practice ahead of qualifying but could not replicate his earlier pace as he lapped just over half a second slower than Raikkonen. However, with the field so close in terms of lap time, Button, like his rivals, will be looking to make up ground in Sunday qualifying.
Toyota driver Jarno Trulli put in a good lap to qualify in sixth position while team-mate Ralf Schumacher is having a bit of a low-key weekend as he qualified his TF105 back in 12th.
Felipe Massa will lose ten positions on the grid due to the Sauber Petronas engine change that took place on Friday but the Brazilian put in a very smooth performance today to qualify ahead of Alex Wurz in the second McLaren Mercedes. For Wurz, the result will be a bit of a disappointment as he is seven tenths slower than his team-mate for the weekend Kimi Raikkonen.
Nick Heidfeld qualified in ninth position. His BMW Williams in particular does not seem to be absorbing the bumps of Imola very well at all with the car constantly bucking from bump to bump. Takuma Sato qualified the second BAR Honda in tenth position.
Rubens Barrichello does not seem to be able to extract much pace from his F2005 this weekend. The Brazilian qualified in 11th position over six-tenths of a second slower than Michael Schumacher and a tenth ahead of Ralf Schumacher.
Jacques Villeneuve showed good progress in his Sauber as he qualified in 13th position ahead of David Coulthard in the leading red Bull Cosworth entry. Vitantonio Liuzzi qualified in 16th position just behind Giancarlo Fisichella who made a mistake on his hot lap that will prove very costly over the remainder of the Grand Prix weekend.
Narain Karthikeyan is always super aggressive and he did a fine job in his Jordan Toyota to qualify some two seconds faster than team- mate Tiago Monteiro while the Minardi duo of Christijan Albers and Patrick Freisacher brought up the tail of the field in the new PS05 which seem a great improvement over its predecessor.
Sunday qualifying starts at 10.00 CET tomorrow but for now it seems that the battle at the front is firmly joined between Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.


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