Jarno Trulli will start the Monaco Grand Prix from eighth place on the grid as Formula 1 prepares for its Blue Riband event.

Monte Carlo is one of the most challenging races on the calendar for both drivers and teams. The track conditions change even more than at most other venues between Thursday first practice and the race, making tyre choice and car set-up even more of a moving target. The Toyota drivers are also racing the new TF106B chassis for the first time.

Ralf Schumacher only just failed to make it through to the final part of qualifying when his 1m14.398s lap was good for 11th fastest time in the second session. Ralf and Jarno had a difficult task because the team spent Saturday morning free practice concentrating on race set-up, meaning that the race drivers’ first experience of new tyres came during the cut and thrust of qualifying.

“It is the debut for the TF106B here in Monte Carlo,” Trulli explained, “and we concentrated on trying to get a decent race balance this morning. We knew we would pick up a lot of time in qualifying and I think the performance level was pretty much what I was expecting. We did not have the problems with traffic under the new qualifying system that some expected here on the narrow streets of Monte Carlo, although I did have to abort one of my quick laps due to yellow flags. It is a long, tough race here, where concentration is at a premium and the unexpected often happens. I’ll be giving everything tomorrow to score points.”

Schumacher, meanwhile, said: “Monaco is a difficult place to judge the performance of the new car and, in any case, we were only expecting a small step, mainly mechanical, and you don’t really see the full benefits here. We had a couple of balance issues and some tyre graining, which is why we decided to concentrate on the race set-up this morning. You need full confidence to attack in qualifying here and I only just missed out on the top 10. I’ve got an extra set of tyres for the race, so hopefully I will be able to make up a place or two at the start and we also have a free choice over strategy tomorrow.”

Michael Schumacher took a controversial pole position for the seventh round of the 2006 championship. He crashed at the slowest corner of the circuit in the closing minutes of qualifying when he had set the fastest time but the Renaults were both on flying laps and looked like challenging him. Race stewards are investigating the incident.

Schumacher’s pole time was 1m13.898s, and reigning champion Fernando Alonso joined him on the front row with 1m13.962s. Mark Webber (1m14.082s) achieved his best qualifying position of the season for the Williams F1 Team, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren Mercedes (1m14.140s). Giancarlo Fisichella (1m14.396s) was fifth quickest with the second Renault, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya (1m14.464s) in the second McLaren. Rubens Barrichello’s Lucky Strike Honda (1m15.804s) is the other car starting ahead of Jarno (1m15.857s) on the grid.

Toyota’s Pascal Vasselon said: “The tyre performance is even more critical than usual here in Monte Carlo, which is why we concentrated on race set-up in practice. The traffic problems were not as bad as we expected and Jarno did a good job to qualify eighth, while Ralf was unlucky to just miss out on the final session. I think we have a strong race strategy. Monte Carlo is a long race and anything can happen.”