It’s hard to remember a grand prix race that has ever been hosted with a track temperature of 60 degrees but that’s exactly what greeted 15 drivers on Friday as the 2006 Qtel Masters of Qatar qualifying session got underway at 15:00 hours local time.

The blistering heat of the desert was reflected by the even more blistering pace of the Masters and as was the case at the inaugural round in South Africa, Britain’s Nigel Mansell starts Saturday’s race from pole position with a fastest lap time of 1.46.926s followed by Christian Danner (2nd, Germany), Derek Warwick (3rd, Britain), Ricardo Patrese (4th, Italy), Pierluigi Martini (5th, Italy) and Emerson Fittipaldi (6th, Brazil).

“I am of course delighted to be on pole for tomorrow’s race but it got a bit worrying out there today for a moment as one of my earlier best laps was aborted because of a red flag. In the end, however, it came to me and it was simply awesome,” Mansell said. “The heat, however, was something else! It will be one hell of a race tomorrow, especially when you consider how close the lap times today were with just under a second being the difference between P1 and P6. Again, I want to thank and express my congratulations to everyone responsible for bringing this show to Qatar. Both GP Masters and QMMF have done an amazing job and we are extremely proud to be contesting Qatar’s first ever grand prix race tomorrow.”

The 5.8km Losail International Raceway will host Qatar’s first ever four-wheeled motor race and with Mansell obliterating the Moto GP qualifying time from three weeks ago by almost 9 seconds, tomorrow’s 24 lap race promises to be nothing short of an  ultimate test of endurance and speed.

“I would like to welcome the Masters to Qatar and to the Losail International Raceway circuit. It has been our dream to host such great and iconic names from grand prix racing and we are extremely happy to have this opportunity,” said Mr Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah President, QMMF. “GP Masters adds huge value to our racing vision here in Qatar and it really is a dream come true for everyone at QMMF. We hope for a long future together and look forward to a good and action packed race here tomorrow.”