Qualifying Report - Raikkonen wins the day

Kimi Raikkonen gave notice that he is still the man to be feared as he set the fastest time in qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix. The Finn put his McLaren on pole, beating the two Renaults of Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso, although the biggest challenge should have come from Jenson Button but a mistake in the mid-section left the British driver scrabbling around in 13th place, which will mean that he is going to have a tough race. It was a second disappointment for BAR-Honda as Takuma Sato had previously made a similar mistake, which dumped him down to 14th position. Worse still, Takuma then trailed round on his slowing down lap and got in the way of Mark Webber's Williams-BMW, which lost the Australian an appreciable amount of time. The team was unable to warn Sato because the Japanese driver was driving around with the transmit button depressed, which meant that the team's warnings could not be heard. Sato ended the session under investigation by the stewards and may end up at the back of the grid, something which will do nothing for his future career with the team.

It was a day full of mistakes and those who made it through without making a mess of things were the ones to prosper. Juan Pablo Montoya had to run early in the session because of his retirement in Hungary but he drove a sensible lap and was able to take fourth on the grid, just three-tenths behind the two Renaults and six-tenths behind Raikkonen. In the race he is sure to be quick.

Fifth fastest was Jarno Trulli in his Toyota, ahead of the two Williams-BMWs of Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber, the Australian irritated about Sato. With the incident Webber might have been able to mix it with the really quick guys.

Felipe Massa did a good lap to line up eighth, despite running early in the qualifying session. The new Ferrari driver did much better than his team mate Jacques Villeneuve who made a mess of things by spinning on his qualifying run, which means that he will be starting down at the tail of the field.

Ralf Schumacher did a workmanlike job to take ninth in his Toyota ahead of Christian Klien's Red Bull and Rubens Barrichello in his Ferrari. Barrichello's position was more down to his lack of mistakes than his pace as the Ferraris are completely off the pace this weekend. Michael Schumacher tried to muscle his car to a better grid position and ended up spinning out and so will start down at the back.

David Coulthard was 12th, having been the first man to run, following the Red Bull debacle in Hungary.

Tiago Monteiro was once again fastest of the backmarkers with a time which was well clear of that achieved by Christijan Albers in his Minardi.

Robert Doornbos and Narain Karthikeyan did not record times because of technical problems. With Villeneuve and Schumacher both spinning and Sato expecting a penalty, the back end of the grid will be lively in the first few laps.