Giancarlo Fisichella and Jacques Villeneuve benefited from an improved Honda engine in the Italian Grand Prix's qualifying session.

Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda Racing Development's Race and Test Team Manager, said "We have introduced a step up this weekend from the unit we ran in Spa and I'm pleased that the reliability has been good as Monza is notoriously tough on engines. We had two higher spec engines today, one of which was allocated to each team for qualifying – they were used by Jacques and Giancarlo."

"At Monza there are several good overtaking opportunities so we are hopeful of running competitively tomorrow and scoring some points."