Button Takes Pole Down Under
Honda’s Jenson Button will start the Australian Grand Prix from pole position after a tense qualifying session which saw Michael Schumacher eliminated before he could push Ferrari into the top 10.
The first 15 minutes saw a frustrated Rubens Barrichello denied his chance for Honda after Super Aguri’s Yuji Ide got in his way. The Japanese rookie had several adventures during the session, and was not at all popular with the Brazilian, who thus ended up only 17th on 1m 29.943s. Rather more predictably, the Midlands of Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro were also eliminated.
The Dutchman lapped his in 1m 30.226s, the Portuguese in 1m 30.709s. Between them was Scott Speed, who couldn’t get his Toro Rosso round below 1m 30.426s. At the back were Takuma Sato on 1m 32.279s and the unfortunate Ide on 1m 36.164s.
Fastest at this point were Juan Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella, Nick Heidfeld, Ralf Schumacher, Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, David Coulthard, Jacques Villeneuve, Fernando Alonso, Christian Klien, Felipe Massa and Tonio Liuzzi.