Raikkonen leads ‘careful’ Schu after rain-hit qualifier
Raikkonen, who went out second after championship leader Schumacher on their one-lap runs, kept his cool to outpace his German rival before rain fell midway through the session to leave their times unbeatable.
McLaren driver Raikkonen’s lap of 1min 29.989 sec beat Schumacher’s 1:30.353 effort by 0.364 sec with the Williams pair of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher finishing third and fourth.
Michael Schumacher said: “All in all I am happy with this result. I did a good lap, being a bit careful in the first sector before going flat out. The time isn’t bad and puts us in a good position for tomorrow afternoon’s qualifying.
“We are optimistic about the rest of the weekend.”
Raikkonen said he was happy with his qualifying performance.
“The car has been perfect all day and we improved it even more for qualifying so I am very pleased.
“The whole lap was pretty good and I made no mistakes. There is no doubt the MP4-17D is quick but it is a matter of making all the parts work together and for me not to make any mistakes.
“I look forward to the rest of the weekend.”
Third-placed Montoya was happy with his performance and predicted a strong weekend for Williams.
“I am reasonably happy with my qualifying lap today despite losing a bit of time in the first corner,” said the Colombian.
“I believe we should be pretty strong for the weekend as we have got a great car. We are aiming to be ahead of Ferrari and McLaren and I am confident we have the equipment to do so.”
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, in the second Ferrari, finished 0.853 sec behind Raikkonen, half a second slower than team-mate Schumacher, while Scot David Coulthard was 0.914 sec behind his McLaren teammate Raikkonen in sixth.
Renault drivers Italian Jarno Trulli and Spaniard Fernando Alonso could only manage the seventh and eighth fastest times, with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, of Jordan, ninth and German Heinz-Harald Frentzen 10th in the Sauber.
Briton Jenson Button, the 10th car on track, hit a plastic marker post on the entrance to the chicane and damaged the front wing of his BAR but finished 11th.
Heavy rain began to fall soon after he had set his lap and the first man to be caught out was Australian Mark Webber of Jaguar, who slid wide at the chicane.
Brazilian Cristiano da Matta then spun at turn three before aborting his lap and Villeneuve, out immediately after the Toyota driver in his BAR-Honda, did the same but ended up in the gravel trap and caused the session to be stopped.
The race organisers allowed teams to fit extreme weather tyres to their cars rather than the grooved slicks or light rain tyres previously allowed and the session was restarted after a six-minute break.
Frenchman Olivier Panis was first out on the wet track in the second Toyota and he set a time of 1:57.327.
German Nick Heidfeld went fastest of the wet weather runners but finished 22.311sec off Raikkonen’s pace.
