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 Brazilian GP: Qualifying Report

MONTOYA TAKES BRAZILIAN POLE!

Montoya produced the goods in qualifying to pip the two Schumachers to pole

For the first time this year, a Ferrari will not start Sunday’s Grand Prix from Pole Position, as Juan Pablo Montoya and BMW Williams proved unstoppable in this afternoon’s thrilling 60-minute qualifying session for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

For Montoya, his time of 1:13.114 gave him his fourth career pole position in what was a thrilling session as the Colombian battled against his team-mate Ralf Schumacher and the Bridgestone shod Ferrari of Michael Schumacher.

Second position finally fell to the World Champion in his 2002 specification Ferrari, but will non-the-less be happy with his position at a circuit that the team always expected would be difficult for them. While Schumacher may be happy, team-mate Rubens Barrichello most certainly will not be.

The new F2002 proved to be quick, but not quick enough

The Brazilian lost his fastest time from the session as a result of his pit-lane infringement that saw him exit the pits while the red lights were illuminated in practice this morning and therefore starts back in eighth position. “In my view it is a very bad decision,” said Ross Brawn who went on to explain that the red light came on when Barrichello was just two metres from the pit lane exit and that the red lights had not illuminated in the Ferrari cockpit. Barrichello was not the only driver to suffer this fate as Jordan's Takuma Sato also suffered the same penalty.

Ralf Schumacher starts the Brazilian Grand Prix from third position, just 0.214s slower than Pole Position man Montoya, underlining just how close the lap times are at the Interlagos circuit.

The huge city of Sao Paulo looms near the Interlagos circuit

David Coulthard had a trouble-free run to fourth position overall but the same cannot be said for his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn’s gearbox failed on his first qualifying run forcing him into the spare MP4-17 while his engineers fixed the problem enabling him to revert to his primary machine later in the session. After piping Jarno Trulli for fifth position on the grid in the dying seconds of the session, Raikkonen’s McLaren Mercedes ground to a halt once again.

There will be smiles in the Renault camp as Trulli and Jenson Button qualified in sixth and seventh positions respectively ahead of hometown hero Barrichello.

Nick Heidfeld was ninth fastest in his Sauber Petronas ahead of the impressive Mika Salo in the Toyota.

One of the home favourites Felipe Massa lines up in 12th position for Sauber

Jaguar seem to have made a big leap forward with their R3 chassis as Pedro de la Rosa qualified in a very well deserved 11th position while team-mate Eddie Irvine was just two positions further back. The team seem to have reliability on their side, so a points paying position is possible for the Jaguar team.

Felipe Massa gave his all as ever in the second Sauber Petronas to take 12th overall while Jordan Honda will be disappointed to start the Brazilian Grand Prix in 14th and 19th positions with Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato respectively. Sato, like Barrichello was stripped of his fastest time in the session for a pitlane infringement during yesterday’s practice sessions.

Jacques Villeneuve starts 15th after a relatively trouble-free day ahead of the second Toyota of Allan McNish and Olivier Panis. Arrows Cosworth failed to come up with the goods after some impressive pace at various stages of the weekend with Heinz-Harald Frentzen just 18th and Enrique Bernoldi in 21st.

Like Barrichello, Jordan's Takuma Sato had his fastest qualifying lap disqualified

Mark Webber put in a strong performance to pull his Asiatech powered car off the back-row and starts in 19th place while team-mate Alex Yoong starts the Brazilian GP last.

The race promises a great deal, but the battle for victory looks at this stage of the weekend to be between the two BMW Williams’ of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, while Michael Schumacher will be pushing his Bridgestone shod Ferrari as hard as he dares. Of course, a first lap incident is highly likely this weekend if the last two events are anything to go by, but all in all we expect a great battle tomorrow.

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