Panasonic Toyota Racing got both cars through to the top 10 qualifying shoot-out for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, round 6 of the 2006 Formula 1 World Championship.

The Toyota TF106s are strongly placed for the 66-lap race around the Circuit de Catalunya with Ralf Schumacher sixth fastest with a lap in 1m15.885s and Jarno Trulli seventh on 1m15.976s.

The circuit is awash with passion and colour as the Spanish spectators thronged to support reigning world champion Fernando Alonso, who did not disappoint them, taking his first ever pole position for his home race with a lap in 1m14.648s in the Mild Seven Renault.

Alonso and Renault are just one of the challenges that the Toyota team faces tomorrow but Schumacher is confident that the team is well placed for a strong points scoring finish.

“I’m optimistic that we can have a competitive race because we had a good day today,” the German said. “Formula 1 is very competitive and you always have to push hard to make it through to the final session of qualifying. But still, I think that our race strategy is good and I hope we will be able to target a good result. We think our strategy is okay and my lap was a good one but a driver never thinks he has done the perfect lap.”

Trulli, meanwhile, heads into tomorrow’s race still looking for his first championship point of 2006.

“Tyres are always a significant part of any Barcelona race,” he said. “We have worked hard to try to eliminate the graining problem that we suffered yesterday. I had a little bit too much understeer to get everything out of the car in qualifying but we are still well-placed to score points. We had good performance at the test here and that has been reflected again, so I will be keeping my fingers crossed.”

Behind Alonso, Giancarlo Fisichella (1m14.709s) made it an all-Renault front row, while the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro cars of Michael Schumacher (1m14.970s) and Felipe Massa (1m15.442s) monopolised row 2. Rubens Barrichello (1m15.885s) was fifth quickest for Lucky Strike Honda and shares the third row of the grid with Ralf. Behind Jarno, Jenson Button’s Honda (1m16.008s), Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren Mercedes (1m16.015s) and Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber (1m17.144s) completed the top 10 qualifiers.

Toyota’s Senior General Manager Chassis, Pascal Vasselon, said: “This morning we elected to stay on used tyres and so our times weren’t really representative and it was hard to know exactly where we were. But qualifying went well, we were confident about making it into the top 10 and both drivers did a strong job. We hope to translate the promise into points in the race.”