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 Spanish GP: Qualifying Report

SCHUMACHER ROCKETS TO POLE

Schumacher exits the pitlane for another qualifying run

Michael Schumacher secured his 46th career pole position in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix with a brilliant performance at the Circuit de Catalunya this afternoon.

The German had played second fiddle to his very quick team-mate Rubens Barrichello for most of the afternoon, but after a session stoppage due to an incident involving Alex Yoong, he came out and rocketed to the top time, a blistering 1:16.364.

Brazilian Barrichello improved his mark after the session was restarted but was unable to respond to his team-mate and finished just over three tenths behind the champion German.

BMW-Williams went better than expected this afternoon after steadily improving its machinery, and late in the session both Ralf Schumacher and Juan-Pablo Montoya came home strongly even if they weren’t in the league of Ferrari. Schumacher was third with a 1:17.277 and Montoya fourth with a 17.425. The performance of Montoya was particularly surprising given his earlier problems, and he will be pleased with the progress made.

Montoya salvaged fourth place after a poor day for him and Williams

Kimi Raikkonen was also a late improver. The McLaren Mercedes driver had been ‘thereabouts’ during the afternoon and after making further changes to his car managed to put in a good performance. He once again beat his team-mate David Coulthard, the Scot back in seventh position in his MP4/17.

Renault’s hotshot Jenson Button was sixth quickest with a 1:17.638 and with a good chance to score points tomorrow, just ahead of Sauber’s consistent contender Nick Heidfeld, and Renault’s other man Jarno Trulli, who resurged after problems earlier in the weekend.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen proved that Arrows’ pace of yesterday was not false by taking the tenth quickest time, the German definitely benefiting from the extra engine power from Cosworth and chassis developments.

Sauber’s Brazilian Felipe Massa was 11th, followed by Honda powered drivers Giancarlo Fisichella, Olivier Panis, and the other Arrows of Enrique Bernoldi.

Massa impressed again but just missed out on a top ten spot

Eddie Irvine in the Jaguar did reasonably to take 15th, although the story was not so positive for Jacques Villeneuve, the Canadian slow in his BAR ending down in 16th position.

Hometown hero Pedro de la Rosa was 17th in the Jaguar-Cosworth, ahead of Toyota’s Mika Salo, Jordan’s Takuma Sato, Alan McNish, and Mark Webber.

And despite Alex Yoong’s kerb crashing incident that caused the session stoppage, the Malaysian managed to qualify by setting a time three tenths within the 107% cut off.

Qualifying Times

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