New qualifying system decided

Following votes of the FIA World Motor Sport Council and the Formula One Commission the following qualifying system will apply from the 2005 season.

Two sessions, the first from 13.00 to 14.00 on Saturday; the second from 10.00 to 11.00 on Sunday. The first session is single lap qualifying, with the cars going out in the reverse order of their finishing positions at the previous race. The second session is also single lap qualifying, with the cars going out in the reverse order of the qualifying on Saturday (i.e. the fastest car on Saturday runs last on Sunday).

The cars run on Saturday with unrestricted fuel. They go into parc ferme after this qualifying session and for the Sunday qualifying session they run with race fuel, having been allowed to refuel before the second qualifying session, but are not allowed to refuel again before the race starts.

The times of the two sessions are aggregated to determine the grid, with the shortest aggregate time in pole position.

-fia-