Button Grabs Maiden Pole at the San Marino GP

Briton Jenson Button claimed his maiden pole position when he produced a flying performance in qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.

BAR-Honda driver Button, who has finished on the podium in the last two races, was at his best as he claimed his first-ever front row with a lap time of 1:19.753.

Button, whose previous best qualifying was third place in Belgium in 2000, was 0.258 seconds ahead of world champion Michael Schumacher with Williams-BMW's Juan Pablo Montoya third fastest.

Rubens Barrichello will begin from fourth on the grid for Ferrari ahead of Ralf Schumacher, who will be joined on the third row by Renault driver Fernando Alonso.

Button's BAR-Honda teammate Takuma Sato, Jaguar's Mark Webber, Renault driver Jarno Trulli and Cristiano Da Matta, of Toyota, completed the top-ten.

Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella will begin from the back row of the grid after opting against setting lap times. Minardi driver Zsolt Baumgartner, who has an engine change before the session, spun at the Variante Alta and ended more than 25 seconds adrift of the pole time, and will begin from the rear end of the grid.

Alonso, Webber and Trulli, watched from the pit by his new stunning girlfriend, were the quickest of the first 10 runners.

McLaren's Raikkonen, who has not finished a race this season, completed only an installation lap with an engine change planned for later on Saturday, the team said, and he will be alongside Baumgartner at the rear of the grid.

Sato moved into second place at the expense of Webber with a time 0.018 down on Alonso, but he was immediately pushed down a place as Barrichello moved into top-spot by more than four-tenths of a second.

Sauber driver Fisichella, who was going to be punished with a one-second addition to his time after setting his fastest lap time in practice under yellow flags, opted against setting a lap time. Button then took over in provisional pole as his blistering lap was 0.698 seconds ahead of Barrichello - the fastest lap time of the weekend.

Schumacher had been set to better Button's time, but he lost vital time running wide as he pushed hard and ended 0.258 seconds behind the British driver. Ralf Schumacher was unable to threaten Button's time and Montoya could only set the third best time behind Schumacher.

Pos Driver Team T1 T2 Time 1. (16) Button BAR-Honda (M) 22.790 49.616 1:19.753 2. (18) M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 22.732 49.381 1:20.011 + 0.258 3. (20) Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 22.972 49.801 1:20.212 + 0.459 4. (14) Barrichello Ferrari (B) 22.973 49.776 1:20.451 + 0.698 5. (19) R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 23.303 50.116 1:20.538 + 0.785 6. (7) Alonso Renault (M) 23.288 50.319 1:20.895 + 1.142 7. (13) Sato BAR-Honda (M) 23.129 50.210 1:20.913 + 1.160 8. (10) Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 23.354 50.239 1:20.921 + 1.168 9. (9) Trulli Renault (M) 23.349 50.447 1:21.034 + 1.281 10. (8) da Matta Toyota (M) 23.522 50.640 1:21.087 + 1.334 11. (17) Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 23.294 50.275 1:21.091 + 1.338 12. (6) Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 23.424 50.818 1:21.532 + 1.779 13. (11) Panis Toyota (M) 23.633 50.749 1:21.558 + 1.805 14. (5) Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 23.649 51.085 1:21.949 + 2.196 15. (3) Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 23.942 51.760 1:23.352 + 3.599 16. (4) Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 23.789 51.760 1:23.488 + 3.735 17. (2) Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 24.992 53.742 1:26.899 + 7.146 18. (1) Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 25.129 53.845 1:46.299 +26.546 19. (12) Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) - - No Time 20. (15) Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) - - No Time All Timing Unofficial