Jarno Trulli achieved Panasonic Toyota Racing's best starting position of the season when he qualified fourth for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix, the halfway point in the 2006 Formula 1 World Championship.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, located on Ile Notre Dame in the middle of Montreal's Saint Lawrence seaway, is always an interesting race with a combination of long straights, tight chicanes and hairpins presenting the teams with a different challenge. The emphasis is on strong engine performance and good stability under braking as the cars run in relatively low downforce trim.

Trulli lapped the 4.631km circuit in 1m15.968s and was beaten only by the Renaults and Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren Mercedes.

"That was a good session, the car felt strong and I am looking forward to a good race tomorrow," Trulli said. "We have had some problems in recent races and I'm hopeful that we can make the most of this qualifying position and get a good result. I was the quickest of the cars on Bridgestone tyres and that is something that the whole team can be pleased about."

Team mate Ralf Schumacher, meanwhile, did not make it through to the final part of qualifying and will start the race from 14th position on the grid.

"I am disappointed to miss out so narrowly on the final part of qualifying," Schumacher said. "Unfortunately I struggled to find a balance this morning and those problems continued into qualifying. We will investigate that tonight so we can improve tomorrow. Rest assured, 70 laps is a long way and I will be doing everything I can to get up into the points during the race."

Reigning world champion Fernando Alonso took his fifth consecutive pole position with a lap in 1m14.942s, as team mate Giancarlo Fisichella (1m15.178s) made it an all Mild Seven Renault front row. Kimi Raikkonen (1m15.386s) was third fastest for Team McLaren Mercedes. Lining up right behind Trulli on the grid is seven times champion Michael Schumacher (1m15.986s). Nico Rosberg (1m16.012s) qualified sixth fastest for the Willams F1 Team, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya's McLaren and then the Lucky Strike Hondas of Jenson Button (1m16.608s) and Rubens Barrichello (1m16.912s). Felipe Massa's Ferrari (1m17.209s) completed the top 10 qualifiers.

Panasonic Toyota Racing's Pascal Vasselon explained: "Jarno has done an excellent job to qualify fourth and hopefully he will have a strong race. Ralf was unfortunate to miss out on the top ten but he has been close to Jarno's pace for most of the weekend so we expect more tomorrow. There is often a lot of incident at Montreal and, historically, there has been quite a high incidence of safety car interventions. It is also a demanding circuit mechanically, particularly as regards brakes, and the drivers have to look after their machinery. I am hopeful that we can have strong races with both cars."