By Karl King
March 11 2006

It was Honda's Jenson Button who pipped Michael Schumacher to the top sport in the last chance of free running before qualifying kicks off. Button was 0.011s faster than Schumacher, who was followed by defending World Champ Fernando Alonso.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was down in 8th place, separarting the Toyota duo of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher respectively.

Juan Pablo Montoya was in a fledging 15th, this comes after news that McLaren will not allow an engine change to the Columbian's MP4-21 despite complaining that he is 7km/h down on Kimi on the straights. The team do not see a problem and will not risk the 10 place engine rule.

In Free Practice Montoya was ahead of rookie Nico Rosberg's Williams FW28, who in turn was followed by the Midland cars, the Toro Rosso's and the two Super Aguri cars respectively.

Kimi covered 12 laps, compared to Montoya's 11. Juan Pablo was almost 2 and a half seconds off the leading pace.

However, according to reports, both drivers were running on old Michelin tyres.

Qualifying kicks off in about an hour and 20 minutes from as I write this, at 11:00GMT.
Britain's F1 broadcaster ITV1 are showing the qualifying coverage from 10:30GMT. Don't miss it!