Barrichello rues missed pole

"It was really unlucky because the car was better than the 1m 18.801s time that I did. I really thought I had a shot at pole today," he said.

Barrichello starts behind team-mate Michael Schumacher on pole and David Coulthard second but outgunned world champion Mika Hakkinen who starts fourth.

The Brazilian said he regarded the season in two parts, the second of which starts here in Montreal.

"Things could have been better but I feel I was quite unlucky. All the red flags came out on my earlier run and then I had traffic at the end," he said.

While Schumacher was hoping he would get the blessing of unlucky 13 to beat the pole jinx tomorrow the jinx came today for Barrichello.

"On the positive side I feel really happy because it is positions one and three for Ferrari but I could have done better with the car that I had. It has felt good all weekend."

This is only the third time in eight races Barrichello has been in the top three and is still hunting his first victory for Ferrari.