The 2006 United States Formula 1 Grand Prix

[Ed]

Barrichello takes 4th!

[Ed]

Session over and Michael is on Pole with Felipe Massa in second and Giancarlo Fisichella in 3rd.
Barrichello, Alonso, Villeneuve, Button, R Schumacher, Raikkonen and Heidfeld make the top 10.

Full results

[jacfan]

Session over and Michael is on Pole with Felipe Massa in second and Giancarlo Fisichella in 3rd.
Barrichello, Alonso, Villeneuve, Button, R Schumacher, Raikkonen and Heidfeld make the top 10.

Full results

That has not done my tips much good.

[Julian Mayo]

Par for the course for me I finally pick Alonso for pole Tis all part of a dastardly plott
go Fisi

[Julian Mayo]

Good Q by the Barra !
Nico, Nico, wherefor art thou ?

[Ed]

Selected Team and Driver quotes after qualifying

Drivers

Michael Schumacher - Pole

I am very happy! It would be hard to expect better from this weekend, at least so far: yesterday Germany and Italy got through to the World Cup semi-finals, today I got pole with Felipe alongside me. To complete the job, we need to win tomorrow and I will be trying my hardest to do so. Of course, I am a bit surprised at the gap to the others, but this is further confirmation that if all elements of our package are at their best, we are really competitive. The 248 F1 has been well balanced since yesterday and the Bridgestone tyres have been very consistent in terms of performance, even in race configuration. This is the start of the second half of the season and clearly every race is ever more important to reduce the gap in both championships and we will try and start doing this as from tomorrow.

Felipe Massa - 2nd

It was a very good day, which I hope will be rounded off with a win for Brazil in the World Cup quarter finals. I am very happy to be on the front row, as it is a very important result for the team. Now however, we must concentrate on the race. The car was very competitive. Over the course of the weekend we made various set-up changes which improved our performance. The Bridgestone tyres were very good, both over a single timed lap and over a distance. Tomorrow, it will be important to make a good start and ensure that those behind us don?t manage to get between us. I am sure we have a very good chance.

Giancarlo Fisichella - 3rd

I am really pleased to be third on the grid because this has not been the best circuit for us so far this weekend. I was quite happy with the car today, but we still have grip problems and we don't know why. Looking to the race, I am feeling confident and we have to be optimistic about our chances. We need to fight for a good finish to keep ourselves in a strong position in the championship.

Rubens Barrichello - 4th

I'm really happy with my position today. The car is certainly competitive and I enjoyed the qualifying session. I would like to thank everybody in the team because we have all done a good job to get the best possible from the car today. For sure the race will be tough and we have to keep pushing hard because we have some tough competition behind us on the grid. My aim now is to push for a good points finish and I think we have the car to do that. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Fernando Alonso - 5th

I did the maximum possible today. The car was understeering this morning and we worked to try and correct it during practice. In the end, we were adding front wing during qualifying as well to get a better balance, but it was still difficult to drive and costing me time. The Grand Prix tomorrow will be a long one, so hopefully the strategy will work well for us and help me gain positions. I will be aiming for the podium, and trying to limit the damage in the championship.

Jacques Villeneuve - 6th

I am quite happy because in the middle of the second qualifying session it looked like it would be tough to get into the top ten, but then it worked out. We are very close to Fernando Alonso, and just needed a few hundredths of a second to be in front of him. That makes it a bit frustrating, but there were a few mistakes on that lap. However, this weekend we concentrated on the set up for the race more than for the qualifying, so I am quite confident for the race.

Jenson Button - 7th

I'm pleased with the way qualifying went today. The car was well-balanced and I think I have a good strategy. The challenge will be getting past the cars directly in front of me but generally I think we can have a strong race and points for both of us is certainly a possibility here. It should be a great race for the fans tomorrow.

Ralf Schumacher - 8th

In general it was a pain-free qualifying session for me. We had a very good car in the first two sessions today and we were able to push well without problems. In Session 3 we seemed to struggle a bit more with grip and balance. That made it hard to get the best out of the car on a fast lap. As a result I wasn't happy with my last run and I think I could have done slightly better. But we have still made it to P8 which is an achievement and a reasonable place to start tomorrow. Hopefully we can bring a good result home in the race.

Teams

Ferrari - Jean Todt

This was a dream qualifying! For the second time this season, we have an all-red front row of the grid and we are particularly pleased to have managed it today for various reasons: for our large number of American fans, who have given us a very warm welcome, for the team that has worked well, for our technical and commercial partners, especially Bridgestone, for me personally, as today I celebrate the end of my thirteenth year at the head of the Scuderia. All that aside, it?s points that count and we still have to get them. Tomorrow we have a good chance of winning, but we are well aware it could be difficult. The decisive parameters will be the same as ever: reliability, especially on the engine side, as this is the second race for them on both our cars on a very demanding track and with high temperatures; consistency of tyre performance; the talent of our drivers and their ability to avoid making mistakes; the work of the team. If all the pieces of the jigsaw go together, we can aspire to a good result.

Renault - Pat Symonds

It seemed obvious after practice this morning that we would not be able to race Ferrari this weekend, and it would have been wrong to compromise our race strategy by going for the front row today. Giancarlo put in some excellent qualifying laps today and deserved his place on the second row. We were not able to get rid of the understeer on Fernando's car but although this has compromised his performance today, things may turn in his favour tomorrow with track temperatures expected to be in the high 40s. On the tyre side, the main concern this weekend was the durability of the tyres. The professional engineering approach Michelin took to the problems they experienced last year has solved that, and we look forward to a safe race tomorrow. There is no doubt it will also be a very tough Grand Prix, but we will certainly be racing for the podium.

Honda - Gil de Ferran

This has been a good day for us. The engine has been working very well throughout the weekend and the overnight changes were effective. As a result both drivers were quite quick this morning. Qualifying was less nail-biting than it has been lately as Jenson and Rubens sailed through into Q3. We are happy with their starting positions as well as our race set-up and strategy and we look forward to tomorrow's race when we'll put up a good fight.

BMW Sauber - Mario Theissen

This was our strongest qualifying so far this season from a performance level. In the second part of qualifying we made it easily into the final session. A car on the third row of the grid is our best result so far. Unfortunately Nick had a problem in the third part and we have to now analyse this, but from looking at data it seems to be an electronic problem. We are confident we will have both cars in good shape for the race.

Toyota - Pascal Vasselon

Again today we struggled to have two cars running at the same time on the track. Jarno had a problem with the central element of his rear suspension which we could not fix during Q1 so that was it for him. Ralf's pace was very good and he made the top ten without any issues. The problem Ralf had yesterday with vibrations was much better today but it has not gone away completely so we will continue to investigate that tonight. But considering the strategy we have we are happy about his qualifying today. For the race we will have to run low downforce levels because you cannot sacrifice top speed here. Cars follow each other quite closely on the banking and it is definitely possible to pass on the straight. We have done most of our practice sessions on old tyres so we have a good idea of what performance levels to expect. Our Bridgestone tyres are strong over one lap and consistent so we are in good shape.

McLaren - Ron Dennis

We knew that the Bridgestone runners would be very competitive in qualifying and consequently we adopted a race strategy which we feel will give us the best chance for a strong result.

Williams - Sam Michael

We missed Q2 with Nico and Mark narrowly missed out on Q3 by one and a half tenths. The car should be stronger on race pace tomorrow with our tyre choice and the set-up we have selected for Sunday, but clearly our target is to run in the final qualifying session, so we have a lot of work to do. The cars ran without problems and now we will look at our race strategy to see how we can get some points out of tomorrow.

Toro Rosso - N/A

MF1 Racing - Dominic Harlow

This was by far our best qualifying session of the year, and we're obviously very happy with that. Full credit to the mechanics and engineers who put their heads down and worked very hard to improve the car since Canada; they turned out a very good car for the sessions today. Both drivers did a fantastic job to make full use of the performance potential and turn in some quick laps. Race-wise, we know we've got a good tyre and we're looking forward to completing this weekend with our best race result of the season.

Red Bull - Christian Horner

Our performance was about as disappointing as England's football performance today. Obviously Bridgestone has bought a very strong tyre here, which has mixed the grid round a bit. But, we know we'll be better on longer runs so we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Super Aguri - Aguri Suzuki

The team did a very good job today. Our only problem, but a major one, was with the electronics on Franck's car. I do not know why this continues to happen, but we have to find a solution. Setting a Qualifying time is so important and I feel very sorry for Franck. The opposite can be said of Taku?s session today. He did a very good job, his qualifying time was perfect and his car was performing well. Taku?s mechanics and engineers did a great job today and I am very happy that we finished in 18th position for the first time. I am especially happy for Taku as he enjoys this circuit and has fond memories from the US Grand Prix in 2004 when he achieved his first podium. I hope that we have a good race tomorrow and a good result from both Taku and Franck.

[Ed]

Nico Rosberg will start from the back of the grid after the stewards deleted all his times for failing to stop at the weigh scales as instructed.

[Julian Mayo]

Nico Rosberg will start from the back of the grid after the stewards deleted all his times for failing to stop at the weigh scales as instructed.

ouch ! Thanks Ed.

[<T-K>]

.....and down the 8'n Pole rankings I will slip......

[jacfan]

.....and down the 8'n Pole rankings I will slip......

I doubt that you will be alone

[<T-K>]

.....and down the 8'n Pole rankings I will slip......

I doubt that you will be alone

Yeah, I doubt anybody expected this....................or maybe they did...hmmm

[mlittle]

If I'm not mistaken, Michael Schumacher has won the USGP 4 times at Indy; currently he's one of five drivers to have 4 wins at the Brickyard in the track's history(the others are Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt, Jr. and Al Unser, Sr. who have 4 Indy 500 wins in USAC/CART races, plus Jeff Gordon, who has 4 Brickyard 400 wins in Nextel Cup races). Can you imagine the history to be made should Schumacher win the USGP for the fifth time today at Indy?

Good luck to all the competitors today!

[Ed]

Welcome to warm and sunny Indianapolis. Air temperature is 36 degrees while track temperature is 43.

Formation lap in 5 minutes

[Ed]

Expect a total Ferrari domination today. Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa are on the front row after setting times that were much faster than the rest in qualifying.

Formation lap underway.

[Ed]

Cars are arriving back at the starting grid.