P2

The venue for this GP is the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit, where Michael Schumacher has a history of winning seven times. Also given the fact that it usually rains during the race should help Michael who starts from P2 today. Ironically, local boy Jacques Villeneuve, son of Gilles, has never once won his home race, despite having raced with different teams since 1996, including Williams, BAR Honda and even Renault!

It is worrying, however, that Rubens Barrichello had some gearbox problems with his car because that means it could happen to Michael's car also.

Jenson Button surprised everyone by grabbing pole position, while both Renaults start from the second row of the grid. The Mercedes-McLarens of Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya start from P5 and P7 but Williams-BMW are placed in the seventh row.

Indian hope Narain Karthikeyan improved his qualifying performance and is placed P17 before team-mate Tiago Monteiro. Narain's been getting some bad press this weekend, especially from team boss Colin Kolles, who hinted darkly at replacing Narain with someone else. Perhaps someone should point out to Kolles that nobody has really gone places in a Jordan, but most rookies have started with the team before establishing their mark elsewhere. Maybe that'll be the case with Narain too?

Oh, all this will change in a few hours once the five red lights illuminate and then go off, signalling the start of the 2005 Canadian GP! Once the scarlet car crosses the first corner, it'll all be up to the pit-stop strategy!