Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher face a tough Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park. They will start the race 12th and 15th respectively after both suffered problems that masked the true pace of the Toyota TF106Bs.

With Schumacher, the team took the decision to make a precautionary engine change after Friday practice rather than risk a failure in the race. Ralf made it through to the final session of qualifying without problems and set the fifth fastest time with a lap in 1m27.569s. His low starting position comes courtesy of his 10-place penalty as a result of the engine change but the team has had the opportunity to plan his race strategy accordingly.

"These things happen," Schumacher said, "and on the positive side it is possible to overtake here in Istanbul. The Bridgestone tyres look strong, it will be a long and physical race and the car was competitive all the way through practice and qualifying. We will both be pushing hard to score points and I think that target is achievable."

Trulli, who was eliminated in the second qualifying session, added: "I found that I had more understeer than I expected but I made a conservative tyre choice and concentrated more on race strategy, so hopefully that will have a payout in the race if I can make it through the tight downhill first corner. It might be a problem being in the middle of the grid but hopefully I can get through unscathed and then concentrate on making progress."

The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro cars dominated qualifying for round 14 of the championship and it was Felipe Massa who finally emerged to claim his first pole position with a lap in 1m26.907s. Championship-chasing Michael Schumacher lines up alongside him on 1m27.284s, while reigning champion Fernando Alonso (1m27.321s) starts third for Renault with team mate Giancarlo Fisichella (1m27.564s) alongside him. After Ralf suffers his 10-place demotion, Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber (1m27.785s) will start fifth, ahead of Hungarian winner Jenson Button's Lucky Strike Honda (1m27.790s). Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren Mercedes (1m27.866s) is seventh, ahead of Poland's Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber (1m28.167s) and the Williams Cosworth of Mark Webber (1m29.436s).

Toyota's Pascal Vasselon said: "Obviously we were hoping for better starting positions but the reasons are clear and the car has shown strong pace throughout. Last year's race had quite a lot of incidents on what is a tough and challenging track and we are expecting more of the same tomorrow. We are confident that both drivers can aim for strong finishes."