Qualifying: Montoya takes his hat-trick

The Ferrari star was on course to steal the top spot on his final lap, only for small mistakes at the final two corners to leave him third on the grid. His brother Ralf Schumacher will start second, giving Williams a front row lock-out.

After a difficult practice in the morning, where Williams struggled to get close to Ferrari, Montoya steadily improved his performance in the hour-long qualifying session and made his third run count. A time of 1m29.906s was enough to knock his team-mate off pole position and give the Colombian a great deal of satisfaction.

"After all the problems this morning, we came into qualifying not knowing what would happen," he said. "But the car got better and better. With Ralf, there was nothing in it and I was lucky."

Having set the pace from the start, Schuey Jr decided to limit himself to just three runs instead of four to save his Michelin tyres for the race. But when he failed to improve on his third run with a couple of minutes still to go, he left himself vulnerable from an attack by his brother.

Montoya also opened up the chance for the world champion to steal Williams' glory when he ran wide at Turn 3 on his final run. Now Schumacher Sr had a clear run at pole, but it was not to be. "I made two little mistakes at the final two corners - I was just pushing too hard and that was it," he shrugged.

But it had still been a good recovery from the man who had looked sure to take an easy pole position after the free practice sessions. Michael was forced to switch to the spare car after aborting his first run when his F2002 got stuck in gear. His first flying lap in the spare left him only seventh, but he picked up the pace on his next lap to head the second row.

Rubens Barrichello continued to play second best to Schumacher at this track and was fourth fastest. David Coulthard won the latest round of qualifying battles with his McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen to pip the Finn to fifth. That leaves the first three rows in a symmetrical pattern of two Williams, two Ferraris and two McLarens.

The neat formation continues for the next row too. Jenson Button held sway over team-mate Jarno Trulli in the early part of the session, but by the end the Italian had got the better of the Englishman. Trulli will start seventh, Button eighth.

Sauber's Nick Heidfeld had hoped for more than ninth on the grid following his fourth fastest time in morning practice, while Mika Salo again pushed Toyota into the top 10.

Olivier Panis was the best of the cars powered by Honda's new engine. But he was only 12th, with his British American Racing team-mate Jacques Villeneuve a disasterous 19th. The Jordans of Takuma Sato and Giancarlo Fisichella were an equally disappointing 14th and 18th respectively.

The Jaguars were 16th and 17th, Pedro de la Rosa ahead of Eddie Irvine.