For several years now, Atlas F1 kept an eye on the battle between teammates with a simple measurement: comparing the qualifying times of each driver against his teammate's. The new qualifying format has made the comparison somewhat difficult - potentially, every driver could be running with a different fuel load. Moreover, with only one lap each in two back-to-back sessions, small errors could divert the results of any comparison significantly. But, we believe that over an entire season all these factors even out and the overall qualifying differentials between teammates remains the best tool to compare the natural capabilities of the drivers. So, with a few charts and several observations, it's time to see who's hot and who's not...

With six double qualifying sessions completed for 2004, the differentials are once again on a roll! Let's see which drivers deserve bragging rights.

Monaco Notables

• Setting the Record Straight: The Monaco Grand Prix was, of course, the best qualifying result for Renault's Jarno Trulli - he grabbed his first pole position.

• The Ferrari Duo: the first qualifying session at the Monaco Grand Prix was the first time Rubens Barrichello beat teammate Micha Schumacher in any of the sessions so far this season.

• The Jordan Duo: Nick Heidfeld is so far the clear leader of this year's Qualifying Differentials - standing at the top of both Friday and Saturday differential charts.

• The Jaguar Duo: If we compare the first six races of the 2003 season with the first 6 of 2004, it appears that Christian Klien has just slightly a bigger margin to Mark Webber in the second qualifying average than Antonio Pizzonia: the Brazilian was trailing Webber by 0.654 on average in the Saturday sessions last year, while Klien is 0.734 on average behind his Australian teammate after six (second) qualifying sessions this year.

• Changes since San Marino: None.

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