Brawn Surprised by Montoya's Pace

Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn was surprised by Juan Pablo Montoya's performance in Saturday's qualifying for the British Grand Prix.

The Williams driver completed a last-gasp effort to outqualify both Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher, who had dominated the hour-long session from the beginning. Briton Brawn admitted he wasn't expecting Montoya's to set such a lap, but was nonetheless confident for Sunday's race.

"You never think you have it in the bag until the last lap," said Brawn. "Montoya's time was surprising, although we can take comfort from the fact we were doing similar times throughout the session, while he really had to put in an incredible lap.

"We hope to continue the trend seen in the last few races, where qualifying doesn't count for a lot in the race. The cars went well and we are happy with our tyre choice for the race, which will be very close. You can overtake here but it is a bit more difficult than at the Nurburgring and therefore, race strategy will play a vital part in deciding the final result."

Brazilian Barrichello managed to outpace teammate and Championship leader Schumacher also with a last minute effort, relegating the German champion to the second row of the grid.

"Of course I would like to have been on pole," said Barrichello. "But I have no complaints and it's good to be on the front row. On my final run, I had cars in front of me as I left the pits and when I came to start the flying lap, I think my tyres were a bit cooler than I would have liked. As for the car, we made changes throughout the session and it was quite good by the end."

Schumacher, who leads the Championship with the massive 46-point lead over his brother Ralf, failed to qualify on the front row for the fourth time in five race. The German will be relying on a good strategy to try and score his seventh win in ten races.

"I am reasonably confident for the race, but it is hard to say what everyone's race pace will be as we have not done that much running in dry conditions," he said. "Starting on the second row, we will need a good strategy and we must wait and see if we can be quicker than the others."