Ferrari reduced the lead of Williams in the Constructors' Championship to six points with fourteen races of the season remaining.

[1] The teams, also known as constructors, were Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Sauber, Jordan, BAR, Renault, Jaguar, Arrows, Minardi and Toyota.

Montoya's teammate Ralf Schumacher was third on 10 points, ahead of McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen and Eddie Irvine for Jaguar.

Ferrari and Williams had so far dominated the championship, with Ralf Schumacher winning the Malaysian Grand Prix.

[4] Originally due to be introduced at the first race in Australia, problems with its performance had left the team to develop the car, delaying its debut.

Barrichello was third fastest, with the Williams drivers fourth and sixth, Ralf Schumacher ahead of Montoya; they were separated by Coulthard.

[10] After the session's conclusion, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) announced that Barrichello would have his fastest qualifying time stripped when it was determined that the Ferrari driver left the pitlane when closed.

During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107% of the quickest lap to qualify for the race.

Ralf Schumacher qualified third, having battled with Montoya for pole position early in the session and was also happy with the set-up of his car.

Pedro de la Rosa bettered teammate Irvine when he qualified 11th; Felipe Massa split the two Jaguar drivers in 12th.

Fisichella qualified 14th, with the only Canadian driver in the field, Jacques Villeneuve, managed 15th ahead of his BAR teammate Olivier Panis in 17th; they were separated by McNish in 16th.

[6] Michael Schumacher maintained his good form over the weekend by setting the fastest time of the session, a 1:15.866, half a second faster than de la Rosa, in second place.

He immediately waved by the time he realized his mistake, but did it on the Jordan of Takuma Sato, who was running two laps down on ninth and third-place finisher Coulthard.

The race result left Michael Schumacher extending his lead in the Drivers' Championship with 24 points.