MELBOURNE, Australia, 6 March 2005 — Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella said he was lucky to be left with provisional pole after a rainstorm made a farce of the first qualifying session in the Australian Formula One Grand Prix here yesterday. The Italian veteran of 141 GPs was the chief beneficiary of a dry track in the first half of the session to post a flying lap of one minute 33.171 seconds before rain lashed the course.
The drastically-altered conditions gave the top chances of the qualifying field, including world champion Michael Schumacher and McLaren pair Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya, no chance to match Fisichella’s time.
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was second fastest with 1:35.270 ahead of Australia’s Williams-BMW driver Mark Webber (1:36.717).
When seven-time world champion Schumacher ventured on to the track there was torrential rain and all he could do was safely negotiate his Ferrari car around the hazardous street circuit without mishap in 1:57.931 - some 24.760secs down on Fisichella’s time.
Schumacher now faces the daunting prospect of having to turn in a hot lap in today’s final qualifying session to help nudge him higher on the starting grid, but the rain has severely dented his chances of winning a fifth Australian GP in six years.
