Franck Montagny made his Formula One début, becoming the first French F1 driver since Olivier Panis at the 2004 Japanese Grand Prix.

The bottom 6 teams in the 2005 Constructors' Championship and Super Aguri were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday.

Franck Montagny was originally scheduled to act as the third driver for Super Aguri,[2] but was promoted to a race seat[3] after team driver Yuji Ide had his FIA Super License revoked[4] for erratic driving in prior races that season.

The qualifying session was affected by a red flag situation appearing on the timing monitors with 3½ minutes left.

Initially Jacques Villeneuve was outside the top 16, however the time for his lap (which he continued on during the red flag) was later recalled and placed him 7th in the session.