This afternoon's qualifying session in Germany was one of the most exciting of the year, with grid positions in doubt until the very last moments of the third and final part of the session. Michael Schumacher had an eventful afternoon on his way to a slot on the front row, in second place alongside pole-sitter, Kimi Raikkonen in his McLaren-Mercedes. At one point, Michael nearly ran off the slip road as he came into the pits and in another incident, he just squeezed out of his pit stop into pit lane, ahead of Fernando Alonso. Incidentally, the Renault man celebrates his 25th birthday today.

Felipe Massa was next fastest and will thus line up for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, behind Raikkonen in third place, with the Honda of Jenson Button alongside him on row two. The third row sees the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella in fifth spot, with the second Honda, in the hands of Rubens Barrichello, outside him. The session was red-flagged in the first few minutes, when Scott Speed crashed his Toro Rosso into the wall.

The hot weather is due to continue tomorrow, possibly even hotter conditions than today, so much will depend on the consistency of tyre performance and the actual strategies chosen by the leaders. On both these counts, Ferrari is reasonably confident that it has all the right elements in place.

Jean Todt: "It was a very closely contested qualifying, especially in the final part when the drivers were fighting not only for pole but also to get the best track position from which to produce a quick lap. We are satisfied with this result, which sees us with one driver on the front row and the other on the second. Both Michael and Felipe produced a great performance and both the 248 F1 and the Bridgestone tyres were up to the task in hand. Now we come to the most important part of the weekend, which is of course the race. The factors that will decide the finishing order are the usual ones: reliability, tyre performance, team work, strategy and of course the performance of those at the wheel. With seven races to go to the end of the championship and with the gap we need to close up in both championships, it is clear what are our objectives. I hope with all my heart that we can reach them, both tomorrow and come the end of the season."

Michael Schumacher: "We know we can count on a very strong car-engine-Bridgestone tyre which should give us a good race pace, so we can be confident for tomorrow.
 

"We had no problems at all and things have gone well all weekend. The track will still rubber in a bit more, especially as it rained yesterday. My somewhat aggressive entry into the pits? Nothing strange, I was just in a hurry, but I had a bit of graining which prevented me from pulling off the manoeuvre the way I wanted, but in the end nothing happened and that was also the case when it comes to the incident with Fernando in Q3. In certain situations, for example when you are changing tyres at the same time as your team-mate, you cannot see everything clearly and you have to rely on the team as to when to pull away from the pit stop. Even though I have not had that much success in this race in the past, Hockenheim is one of my favourite dates on the calendar and I'm looking forward to racing tomorrow in front of so many of my fans."

Felipe Massa: "Third place is definitely not bad, but I felt I could have done better. I had expected to be fighting for pole, after the car felt very strong on old tyres in this morning's free practice. But at least the good pace I showed in race trim this morning means I can be optimistic for tomorrow. We have a very strong car-engine-Bridgestone tyre package and I hope everything turns out the way we expect it to, but the competition is very close so it will be a tough race."

Ross Brawn: "We are happy with this qualifying result, although obviously we would have preferred to be on pole. However, with this format, the result of the third part of the session inevitably reflects the different strategies chosen by the teams. We think our cars proved to be very competitive, as can be seen from the times set in Q1 and Q2 and the Bridgestone tyres also worked well. Track conditions are steadily improving and they even changed during the qualifying hour. We are reasonably confident about tomorrow's race."

Qualifying: Michael Schumacher: 2nd 1.14.205 12 laps chassis 254; Felipe Massa: 3rd 1.14.569 12 laps chassis 252; Temperature: air 29°C track 41/42°C