Trulli leads the way
Jarno Trulli gave Toyota their first-ever pole position with a stunning lap in qualifying for the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis today.
The Italian put the smiles back on Toyota faces after Ralf Schumacher’s heavy accident yesterday, making history by claiming their first top spot in qualifying in their fourth season of Formula One.
Trulli’s lap of one minute 10.625 seconds was just 0.069secs quicker than McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, who is chasing his second consecutive win after his Canadian triumph last weekend.
The McLaren driver’s late lap knocked Jenson Button off the front row spot he held for much of the session.
Button bounced back from disappointing practice form yesterday to claim a strong third.
The BAR-Honda driver was unable to repeat his pole position of seven days ago in Montreal but gave himself the perfect chance to finally score his first points of a difficult season.
Renault’s double disappointment in Canada, when both Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso retired from the lead, was expected to hit them in qualifying today.
The pair had to qualify early in the session, traditionally the slower part of qualifying, but made light of that handicap to qualify strongly.
Fisichella qualified fourth to beat world championship leader Alonso, who will have his work cut out if he is to fight for a fifth win of 2005 from sixth on the grid.
World champion Michael Schumacher followed up his second place in Canada last weekend with an encouraging lap to give him hope of another podium finish. The Ferrari driver starts fifth with team-mate Rubens Barrichello seventh.
David Coulthard suffered a qualifying lap to forget as he lost valuable time thanks to a mistake and slipped to 16th for Red Bull.
Juan Pablo Montoya suffered the handicap of running early in the session courtesy of his Canadian disqualification. That hindered the McLaren driver, who was off the pace in 11th.
Ricardo Zonta was the first man out on track after his last-minute call-up to the Toyota race team as a replacement for Ralf Schumacher.
The German suffered a heavy crash yesterday and was advised not to participate in the remainder of the weekend amid fears that a second big impact could cause serious injury.
Test driver Zonta stepped in at short notice and performed admirably to net 13th.
Leading Final Positions after Qualifying: 1 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1min 10.625secs, 2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 1:10.694, 3 Jenson Button (Gbr) BAR 1:11.227, 4 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:11.290, 5 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:11.369, 6 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:11.380, 7 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1:11.431, 8 Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR 1:11.497, 9 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 1:11.527, 10 Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber 1:11.555, 11 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 1:11.681, 12 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber 1:11.691, 13 Ricardo Zonta (Bra) Toyota 1:11.754, 14 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 1:12.132, 15 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams 1:12.430, 16 David Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 1:12.682, 17 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan 1:13.462, 18 Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi 1:13.632, 19 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 1:13.776, 20 Patrick Freisacher (Aut) Minardi 1:14.494
