By John Sharpe
March 5 2005

Forget about the new technical regulations, rain has always been the greatest equalizer in Formula One and no one benefited more from fickle weather conditions than Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella. With a damp track drying out, Red Bulls Racing’s Christian Klien put his car in second position just behind Mark Webber until Jarno Trulli displaced them both down one place. As conditions got better Fishichella went out and rocketed his way to provisional pole with a time of 1m 33.171 seconds as track conditions were at their best.

Christian klien put in a solid flying lap making few mistakes and netting 5th place on the grid for Saturdays second of two aggregated qualifying sessions implemented for this year.

RBR’S lead driver David Coulthard however struggled with oversteer and could be heard over the radio during his cool down lap stating the car was poorly balanced. DC did manage to qualify behind his RBR teammate in 6th place with a time of 1m 38.320 to Kliens 1m 37.486.
The team however has their work cut out for them if they want to get the race setting’s proper before Saturday’s final qualifying session and improve on todays times.

As always with rain, there will be off track excursions and Jacques Villenueve had an exciting one. On his warm up lap, Villneueve spun out of control and did a miraculous 360 while regaining control of his Sauber and narrowly missing the wall. Shortly after that and with the rain now beating down on the track Takuma Sato, on his out lap, crashed the BAR nose first coming out of turn 8. Ironically, this year Sato’s number on his racecar is four. The Japanese regard that numeral as being unlucky.

Therefore, as a rain soaked track kept the field of qualifiers tiptoeing around the Albert Park Circuit, potential race favorites Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya Struggled to set a fast time. Both Mclaren teammates ended one behind the other with Raikkonen besting the Colombian with 10th place and Montoya settling for 11th. Schumacher and his Ferrari finished the day in a disappointing 18th.

Tomorrow’s final session will prove crucial for RBR as they are in great position to improve on today’s times after securing 5th and 6th place on the provisional grid. Tonight the teams are able to tinker with the cars and I am sure RBR engineers and mechanics will be able to improve DC’s settings and correct the amount of overseer he was fighting during qualifying.
If I am Christian Horner and the Red Bull team I am feeling very good right about now regarding our chances for points and a good finish on Sunday.

Provisional Grid

Pos No Driver Team Time

1 6 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:33.171
2 16 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:35.270
3 7 Mark Webber Williams-BMW 1:36.717
4 11 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas 1:36.984
5 15 Christian Klien Red Bull Racing 1:37.486
6 14 David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 1:38.320
7 8 Nick Heidfeld Williams-BMW 1:39.717
8 3 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:41.512
9 19 Narain Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota 1:44.357
10 9 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:44.997
11 10 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.325
12 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:45.481
13 18 Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota 1:46.846
14 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:47.708
15 21 Christijan Albers Minardi-Cosworth 1:49.230
16 20 Patrick Friesacher Minardi-Cosworth 1:50.864
17 17 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:51.495
18 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:57.931
19 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas No Time
20 4 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda No Time