Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher will start from 9th and 10th places on the grid in tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix, round 8 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Trulli lapped his Toyota TF105 in 1m16.201s, while team mate Schumacher, who had to go out early in today’s qualifying session as a result of his non-finish in the last race at the Nürburgring, went round in 1m16.362s.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a series of flat-out stretches interspersed with chicanes and hairpins, which mean that braking stability and acceleration out of slow corners are key factors. With surface grip lower early in the session before much tyre rubber has gone down, Schumacher did a commendable job of cancelling out the disadvantage of being the third car out.

“You always know that if you have a retirement or a bad result it will carry a penalty forward into the next race,” he said, “but it’s the same for everyone and you have to do the best that you can. In the circumstances I think I did that and hopefully we will find ourselves in a position to challenge for more points in the race.”

Trulli, meanwhile, had his Saturday morning free practice shortened by an electronic problem, meaning that he could not do as much set-up work as planned.

“I did not get as much heat into the tyres as I wanted on my warm-up lap and so had to be a little bit cautious at the beginning of my flying lap,” he explained. “Strategy is quite important here and you also have to look after the brakes and tyres in the race, so I am confident that we should be in a position to add to our points tally.”

Pole position was claimed by Lucky Strike BAR Honda driver Jenson Button, ahead of seven times world champion Michael Schumacher’s Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro entry. Schumacher equalled his best qualifying performance of the season and lines up in front of championship leader Fernando Alonso’s Mild Seven Renault. The Spaniard’s Italian team mate, Giancarlo Fisichella, will start the race in fourth place with the second Renault, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya’s McLaren Mercedes, Takuma Sato’s BAR Honda and Kimi Raikkonen in the second McLaren. Home hero Jacques Villeneuve, driving on the circuit named after his late father, delighted the crowd by qualifying eighth in the first of the Sauber Petronas cars.

Panasonic Toyota Racing’s chief race engineer, Dieter Gass, explained: “Again we saw another close and interesting qualifying session, with just 0.9s covering 2nd to 10th places on the grid. Both our drivers did a strong job considering that they were both slightly compromised – Ralf by going out early and consequently having less grip, Jarno by losing set-up time in the morning. That meant that he was not as familiar with the car as he might have been at a circuit that demands total confidence in the car in order to get the most out of the car under braking. But I am confident in our race strategies and hope that we can achieve another double points finish tomorrow.”