SEPTEMBER 3, 2005

Raikkonen in trouble

Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of the morning on Saturday but McLaren's hopes of glory on Sunday took a huge hit when it was announced that Raikkonen would be changing an engine before the race, which means that he will drop 10 places on the grid after qualifying. This will also mean that the best strategy for the Finn is to run with the heaviest possible fuel load and hope that this will help him to climb back through the field to take a decent finish. This means that Juan Pablo Montoya moves into the position of favourite for the race but this will not help Raikkonen because the Colombian will take away points (if he scores any) and make Kimi's task of winning the World Championship even more difficult.

The other point of interest on Saturday morning was the pace of the BAR-Honda of Takuma Sato which was right up with Montoya while the Renaults were, inevitably, in the hunt with the fifth and sixth best times of the morning. Mark Webber put his Williams seventh while Antonio Pizzonia played himself in and ended the session in 15th. David Coulthard and Christian Klien were ninth and tenth and then came the two Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.