Montoya Grabs Third Consecutive Pole - European GP

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya claimed his third successive pole position on Saturday to prevent a dream all-German front row at the Nurburgring in qualifying for Sunday's European Grand Prix.

The on-form Williams-BMW star stole the spot from his teammate Ralf Schumacher by just nine thousandths of a second as Ferrari were knocked off the front row for only the second time this season.

World Champion Michael Schumacher could do nothing to prevent his rivals in the sunny and warm conditions at the Nurburgring, and the German was left in third place, 0.311 seconds off Montoya's fastest time after a last-gasp run.

The elder Schumacher will start alongside teammate Rubens Barrichello on an all-Ferrari second row after the Brazilian headed off a challenge for fourth place from Briton David Coulthard, who settled for fifth for McLaren-Mercedes.

Finnish youngster Kimi Raikkonen was sixth in the second McLaren-Mercedes, with Jarno Trulli seventh for Renault, one place ahead of his British teammate Jenson Button, who was outqualified by the Italian for the seventh time in nine races.

Nick Heidfeld stole ninth place from Toyota's Mika Salo in the final minutes but the Finn claimed the final top ten spot as his teammate Allan McNish also performed well to take 13th spot.

Raikkonen was the first of the top runners to set a flying lap, twenty minutes after the start of the session, and he immediately went fastest with a lap of 1:31.069 as teammate Coulthard slotted into second.

Ralf Schumacher then went fastest just before the 30 minute mark, dropping the benchmark time to 1:30.560, with Barrichello moving up to second on his first run, just 0.079 seconds behind the German.

Michael Schumacher was still in the garage with half the session gone, and seemed to have some sort of electronics problem as he returned to the pits after one installation lap.

When he managed to get out for his first flying lap, with 27 minutes of the session remaining, he could set only the seventh fastest time, while rival Montoya moved into the top three behind Schumacher junior and Barrichello.

The younger Schumacher then improved on his leading time and moved below the one minute and 30 seconds barrier with 20 minutes left, when he sliced more than half a second off his previous best to set a time of 1:29.915.

Behind the top three, Raikkonen still held onto fourth spot, with Briton Button fifth for Renault, one place ahead of countryman Coulthard, in the McLaren-Mercedes and two ahead of teammate Trulli.

Schumacher, pushing hard to topple his brother, locked a wheel heading into turn two on his second flying lap and was already well down on the Williams driver's split time in the first sector.

He picked up some of that time, however, and shot up to second place, behind his younger brother, with a time of 1:30.217. But immediately Montoya was on a charge, and stole provisional pole by just 0.009 seconds with 12 minutes remaining.

Montoya is yet to win this season but finished second in this race last year, and his pole will ease his concerns over getting involved in a first corner pile up as the cars head into turn one.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:29.906 205.975 km/h 11 2. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:29.915 + 0.009 9 3. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:30.035 + 0.129 10 4. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:30.387 + 0.481 12 5. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:30.550 + 0.644 12 6. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:30.591 + 0.685 12 7. Trulli Renault (M) 1:30.927 + 1.021 12 8. Button Renault (M) 1:31.136 + 1.230 12 9. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:31.211 + 1.305 12 10. Salo Toyota (M) 1:31.389 + 1.483 11 11. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:31.733 + 1.827 12 12. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:31.906 + 2.000 12 13. McNish Toyota (M) 1:31.941 + 2.035 12 14. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:31.999 + 2.093 12 15. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:32.144 + 2.238 12 16. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:32.281 + 2.375 12 17. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:32.510 + 2.604 12 18. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:32.591 + 2.685 11 19. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:32.968 + 3.062 12 20. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:32.996 + 3.090 12 21. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:33.360 + 3.454 11 22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:34.251 + 4.345 11 All Timing Unofficial