With over half a second between him and his nearest rival, Fernando Alonso, from the first session, Raikkonen could afford to take it easy and he gave up some ground as he took pole by 0.083seconds from his Renault rival.

Giancarlo Fisichella ensured Renault will have two cars on the front two rows by claiming fourth place but he will start behind Mark Webber after the Williams driver held on to his overnight third.

Last year’s Monaco winner Jarno Trulli improved on his first session effort to sneak ahead of Nick Heidfeld and bring his Toyota home in fifth, dropping the German’s Williams to sixth.

World champion Michael Schumacher was unable to recover from his disappointing session yesterday and even though he put in a more encouraging showing, Ferrari continue to struggle in one-lap qualifying.

The German threatened to slip down the grid after a slow first sector but the last half of his lap was impressive and helped him move up the grid to eighth.

Ferrari face a difficult task though if they are to trouble the front-runners on a track where overtaking is nearly impossible.

Rubens Barrichello confirmed their midfield position by dropping behind team-mate Schumacher to 10th, although both Ferraris are likely to have been running heavy on fuel with a view to race strategy.

David Coulthard ensured he remains on course for a fifth points finish from six races by taking his Red Bull car to seventh.

The Scotsman shrugged off the distractions of the Star Wars cast and a morning accident yesterday to clock a tidy lap and earn a fourth-row start.

Narain Karthikeyan continued his erratic form this weekend by bouncing across the kerbs at the chicane to lose valuable time, dropping him behind Jordan team-mate Tiago Monteiro.

To make matters worse, Jordan suffered the indignity of being beaten by an improved Minardi team, who scored their best qualifying result in two years with their new car.

After initial teething problems, the new Minardi has lived up to expectations and taken the fight to Jordan with Patrick Friesacher and Christijan Albers qualifying 13th and 14th respectively.

Two cars did not even set a lap today after incidents yesterday.

Juan Pablo Montoya would have had any time deleted as punishment for causing a crash in practice yesterday so the Colombian remained in the McLaren pit and will start from the back.

He will line up alongside Ralf Schumacher, one of his victims yesterday, after the Toyota sat out second qualifying following his crash in the first session.