Trulli snatches provional pole

Jarno Trulli proved that Imola was just a difficult venue for Toyota as he got the fastest time in first qualifying this afternoon. At the end he is only 0.024s faster than WC leader Alonso and 0.075 faster than his teammate Ralf Schumacher. And that's not all, as Raikkonen is still in front of Ralf, 0.031 behind Trulli.

Juan Pablo Montoya was the first to run the course bit was visibly a little bit nervous, even more after he went off heavily in Friday practice. The team however did not need to change his engine and he will therefore not lose places because of that.

Also quickly out were Fisichella who clearly satisfied his team manager Briatore by going a few tenths faster than Montoya. After him however came the blistering pace of Raikkonen, breaking the then fastest time by more than 0.7 seconds.

Barrichello on his behalf did not really surprise and managed a seventh time. Later on M. Schumacher would prove that the Ferrari's are particularly having a hard time in the second and third sector, as both men managed a truly good first sector time.

A little later came the Minardis and Jordans. The latter being still slower, however the PS05 shows there is real potential in there. Albers is now only half a second down to Monteiro and a second to Karthikeyan. It seems however that the Minardi is a lot harder to drive and may become a further second faster if the team is able to solve that issue.

The Red Bull cars were in rather good shape too today, as Coulthard is now in 10th with exactly 1.000 seconds behind Trulli. Liuzzi made a few small errors and therefore lost 0.5s on his teammate.

A last note goes to the BMW Williams team with its drivers sitting in 5th and 6th position. A good performance overall as the team suffered engine problems so far this weekend. Heidfelds position is however irrelevant as he will drop down 20 places down the grid because of a double engine switch.

With all top ten runners grouped within a second tomorrow promises to be an exiting qualifying. Don't miss it.