By Karl King
April 22 2006

Ferrari and Michael Schumacher stole the show at Imola today, with Honda also doing brilliantly. Speaking on the television Ron Dennis seems happy with the performance of his team, despite them being down the order in the top ten. The surprise of the day must have been Fisichella...not even making it to the top 10...

Knock-Out 1

Kimi Raikkonen was second fastest in the first knock-out, albeit almost a second slower than Fernando Alonso's lap time.

Juan Pablo Montoya was down in thirteenth after switching to the spare car after practice due to a fuel pressure problem. He took his Mercedes V8 with him into his unfamiliar surroundings, ensuring that he will not incurr a 10 place grid penalty come race day.

The usual suspects were on their way out in this session, with Yuji Ide almost two seconds off Tajuma Sato's time, who in turn was only six tenths off the MF1 of Albers. Also out was his team mate Tiago Montiero, the Toro Rosso of Scott Speed and Christian Klien in the Red Bull, despite setting the same time as Nick Heidfeld. The Austrian was knocked out as he set his lap time later than the BMW driver.

Knock-Out 2

Michael Schumacher was back on top in the second qualifying session, just over six tenths faster than Kimi Raikkonen in the McLaren, who was second.

In contrast, fellow McLaren star Juan Pablo Montoya only managed to hold on by the skin of his teeth in tenth. The Columbian set the same time as Rubens Barrichello, a 1m23.760. This bumped, surprisingly, Giancarlo Fisichella out into the drop zone, along with the sole remaining Red Bull and Toro Rosso of David Coulthard and Tonio Liuzzi.

Also facing the chop was Nico Rosaberg, and the BMW's of Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld, the latter hitting the wall at the second Rivazza on his final lap.

Pole Shoot-Out

After such a strong performance all week, Michael Schumacher took a well deserved pole at Imola, and also snatched another record - the German breaking Ayrton Senna's record of 65 career poles, ironically at the same place the late Brazilian would score his final pole before his death a day later almost 12 years ago.

A brilliant performance by the boys at Honda meant the boys in white separate the two Ferrari's, the duo headed by Briton's Jenson Button.

Five tenths behind Barrichello was Felipe Massa who scraped ahead of championship leader Alonso by 0.007 of a second.

Ralf Schumacher will start tomorrow's Grand Prix in sixth ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya who put in a good drive in the T-car. Team mate Raikkonen will start alongside in eighth, the McLarens sure to be heavy.

Rounding out the top ten are Jarno trulli and Mark Webber respectively.