With three races remaining, Toyota is 10 points behind the reigning champions but Jarno Trulli must now start tomorrow’s race from 18th position on the grid after an engine change on Saturday morning.

The team has enjoyed tremendous reliability all season but was forced to make a precautionary change when Trulli’s TF105 suffered a pneumatic leak. He qualified eighth fastest with a lap in 1m13.041s.

“The reliability has been highly impressive all season and this is the first time that we have had any penalty,” Trulli said. “All things considered, I think our performance level is good. I had to go out early in the session after my accident at Spa, when there is always less grip, but even allowing for that and the fact that we were considering race strategy, I was still eighth overall. It will be a difficult afternoon starting 18th but the car felt strong and the balance was good, so I will push as hard as I can to get the best result possible.”

Ralf Schumacher was not so happy with the set-up of his Toyota and lapped in 1m13.285s, 11th fastest, although the German’s TF105 will start in the top 10 once his team mate’s penalty is applied.

“I was quite surprised to find so much understeer,” Ralf admitted. “I did a lap in the mid 1m12s in the final session of practice on Saturday morning and was expecting to be able to qualify comfortably in the top 10. The times are always close here because the lap is one of the shortest of the year, and another half a second would have made a big difference. I will aim to keep out of trouble at the tight first corner and then drive a hard race.”

Pole position was claimed by world champion elect Fernando Alonso, who took his Mild Seven Renault around the 4.309kms in 1m11.988s. Juan Pablo Montoya’s McLaren Mercedes was second fastest (1m12.145s), with Giancarlo Fisichella (1m12.558s) third in the second Renault. Jenson Button’s BAR Honda (1m12.696s) lines up fourth, with Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren (1m12.781s) and Christian Klien’s Red Bull (1m12.889s) completing the top six.

Chief race engineer Dieter Gass commented: “Jarno was looking strong this morning so his 10-place penalty is a blow for us, but we will do everything we can to add to our points total. We are still investigating the reasons that Ralf had so much understeer because the track conditions did not seem to change much, but he did lose quite a lot of time. But, rest assured, both drivers will do everything they can in a race which often throws up unexpected events, either through race incidents or changes of weather.”