The Formula 1 qualifying system has changed once again for round 7 of the championship, following a faxed vote of the Formula 1 Commission last week. Previously this year, the grid was formed by the aggregate results of a low-fuel qualifying session on Saturday afternoon and a race-fuel session on Sunday morning. With the system unpopular with broadcasters, however, F1 qualifying has now returned to a single session with race levels of fuel on Saturday afternoon.

The cancellation of the light-fuel session means that it is no longer possible to compare the respective performances of the cars in similar configuration but broadcasters and media can now ‘wrap up’ their Saturday transmissions with a definitive grid that will not change on Sunday morning.

“I am happy, both with my lap and with our strategy for the race,” reported Trulli, who lapped in 1m30.700s. “We worked on the balance in the morning and the tyres were working very well, especially with the track temperatures relatively high and the sun out.”

Schumacher, who lapped in 1m31.392s, said: “I have not been so happy with the balance and I’ve struggled a bit for grip. I found that I had a bit too much understeer on my qualifying lap but you have to factor in the changes that happen to the car over a long distance and I think I will be in better shape in the race.”

German driver Nick Heidfeld claimed his first ever pole position for the BMW Williams F1 Team with a lap in 1m30.081s, with team mate Mark Webber (1m30.368s) third. The pair were split by Kimi Raikkonen (1m30.197s), the winner of the last two races for the West McLaren Mercedes team. Behind Trulli, Juan Pablo Montoya (1m30.890s) qualified the second McLaren fifth, ahead of championship leader Fernando Alonso (1m31.056s) in the first of the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team cars.

Panasonic Toyota Racing’s chief race engineer Dieter Gass commented: “Both drivers did good laps, and I am confident that the work we have done and the strategies we have adopted should put us in a good position for a strong race. It is harder to judge the race capabilities of our opposition when there is just one qualifying session with race fuel levels, but the same criteria still apply: you have to make the correct tyre choice, you have to find a good set-up and you have to qualify as high as possible. I am confident that we can add to our impressive points tally from the first six races in our ‘home’ event.”