Kimi always gets the bad luck, admits JPM.

Juan Pablo Montoya saved McLaren's qualifying session after Kimi Raikkonen's spectacular exit with a suspension failure, as the Colombian took fifth place on the grid, behind the Ferraris, Jenson Button's Honda and world champion Fernando Alonso.

Montoya had not made much of an impact earlier in the weekend, and was only 13th on Friday, complaining that his engine wasn't running well. The team insisted that the problem was only apparent when running with a low rev limit to protect the engine in practice. Juan still said that he didn't expect to make the top five, and later expressed relief that the team's bad luck always seems to strike his team-mate.

"I didn't know exactly what was going to happen," he said of the new format, "I'm a little bit surprised that I'm that far up because, in all the sessions, we were a fair way down, but I think that was what the car will do. You've got to get a lap in every run, and it makes a bit more pressure on you - and the whole team - not to make mistakes. But it went really smoothly on my side of the garage, and everybody did a good job.

"Kimi was a bit unlucky, but those kind of things always happen to Kimi, so I don't mind."

Montoya says he has reserved judgement about what qualifying says about Michael Schumacher's form, after the seven-time world champion claimed pole position ahead of Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa.

"We'll just see what lap he stops," an unconvinced JPM commented.