It is a sign of the progress Scuderia Ferrari has made over the past few weeks, in conjunction with Bridgestone, that there was an air of disappointment this afternoon after Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello qualified in fourth and sixth places respectively.

Both men had expected to be challenging for pole position but in the end, neither of them got a perfect lap, despite the theoretical advantage of being the last two drivers to make their qualifying run. Track conditions were definitely changeable today, as summer is struggling to put in an appearance at the French circuit this weekend. Drizzle in the early morning left the track damp for the final free practice sessions and the skies were still overcast this afternoon with much cooler temperatures than are usually seen at Magny-Cours.

The session was closely contested with the top nine drivers all within the same second. Although Michael and Rubens set the fourth and sixth best times, they actually will start tomorrow’s tenth round of the world championship from third and fifth places, as Kimi Raikkonen, third quickest today, drops to thirteenth having had to change engines overnight.

Pole position went to Fernando Alonso, his third this season and perfect timing for Renault’s home race. He shares the front row with Jarno Trulli’s Toyota. The reigning world champion is joined on row 2 by the BAR-Honda of Takuma Sato, while Barrichello has the second Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella for company on row 3.

As usual the secrets of who has chosen what fuel load will only be revealed once the first pit stops take place tomorrow afternoon. There are likely to be plenty of refuelling visits going on, as this race has traditionally been a two or three stopper. Although last year, the Scuderia helped Michael to a record seventh win here with an audacious four stop strategy. Despite the fact that the Magny-Cours circuit is known for having the smoothest track surface of the season, it is also very abrasive. This means that apart from the tactical poker game of strategy, tyre consistency in the final stages of the race will play a key role.

Jean Todt : “It was a very closely contested qualifying session as can be seen from the fact that the top nine drivers are all within the same second. Thanks to the work we did last week along with Bridgestone, we were in a position to fight for a place in the top three rows.
 

"Obviously, there is still a question mark over what fuel load the other drivers were on and we will only have the answer to that tomorrow afternoon. In the race, the key factors will be reliability, consistency of tyre performance, the effectiveness of our strategy and of course, the ability of our drivers.”

Michael Schumacher : “We felt we could do well here and I will now be starting from third on the grid which is a good position, even though I had hoped to be fighting for pole. Even so, this is a better position than we have found ourselves in at most of the races so far this season. The important thing is that we are looking good in race trim and so I expect we will have a strong pace tomorrow afternoon. It will be a tough race and it will be interesting to see how the various strategies work out. Let’s wait and see.”

Rubens Barrichello : “I had a really nice lap during which I pushed to the limit and I am happy with my performance. The only problem I had was a bit of graining on my front tyres towards the end of the lap. We did not see this happen in the morning so it was unexpected and I had to lift off a bit in Turn 13 because I had understeer and that lost me a bit of time. I said we could have a good race if we qualified in the top three rows and here we are, so I can be optimistic for tomorrow.”

Ross Brawn : “We looked reasonably competitive over the single lap, which is something we have been working to improve on all season. Today, we were fighting for pole, but we did not quite do it although the fact we were in a position to fight for it was encouraging. Neither driver managed to do a perfect lap, which was a shame. Nevertheless, I think we will be competitive tomorrow when our tyres should work well and deliver consistent performance. The balance of the cars was much better today, but we did not manage to capitalise on that this afternoon, although we seem to have a good race set-up.”

Michael Schumacher: 4th 1.14.572 3 laps chassis 245; Rubens Barrichello: 6th 1.14.832 3 laps chassis 246; Temperatures: air 23° C, track 27° C