Canadian GP - qualifying report

In fact, qualifying had started slowly - none of the cars seemed particularly willing to go out onto a track which in practice had seemed more than usually dusty and slippery, especially at turn 8/9, the second chicane.

The time was set after the chequer had fallen, as the World Championship leader mustered his top time when it mattered - on his last lap of the 12 allotted.

It pipped David Coulthard by almost a tenth of a second. The Scot had, himself, briefly held the pole only to have it snatched by the flying Ferrari.

Coulthard underlined the fact that he is very much the form driver in the McLaren team at present. World Champion Hakkinen could not better fourth on his last lap, and was edged onto the outside of row two by Ferrari Number 2 driver Rubens Barrichello, who was having his best session in many a race.

While at the front the McLaren and Ferrari teams vied for top honours, at the back another struggle was going on. For three quarters of the session, Minardi's Gaston Mazzacane battled with the 107% time he needed to qualify for the race.

The Argentinian needed a lap of 1m24.323 to get into the race on Sunday, but problems led him to be several seconds off this for most of the session. On his third run, he finally got a clear lap, but was a whisker outside the time needed. As the leaders were readying themselves to push the time even further out of reach, Gaston girded his loins, and posted a 1m24.056. Joy was evident in the Minardi garages - and justifiably so.

Heinz Harald Frentzen worked quietly for fifth place, despite being balked by Jenson Button on his last run. After Monaco's disappointment, it was a solid result, but the German needs to convert it into points before the team can convince themselves they are back on track.

Most impressive was Jacques Villeneuve, pulling a characteristic flyer out of the bag to start sixth. The Canadian was briefly shadowed by his team-mate Ricardo Zonta, but no sooner had the Brazilian posted his seventh-fastest time than Villeneuve squeezed ahead of him - and promptly set a time good enough for fifth.

Zonta was still 8th at close of play - this is a result the Brazilian can be proud of, and demonstrates not only that BAR are in better shape at this circuit than they have been of late, but that Zonta may finally be overcoming his seeming inability to qualify well.

The BARs were split by Jarno Trulli's Jordan. Fifth and seventh was not a bad result for Eddie Jordan, but having one of his cars behind the works-Honda running BAR will not aid his case for securing works engines from the Japanese concern.

The session was actually stopped after 40 minutes, when Jos Verstappen's Arrows went heavily into the barriers on a part of the track with no run-off.

The Dutchman, consequently, did not reproduce the form of his compatriots in the European Football Championships, who he is honouring with a new crash helmet design. He ended 13th, four places behind his team-mate Pedro de la Rosa. The Spaniard continued his impressive run with ninth quickest time at the death.

The top two spots mirror the championship battle, though, and Schumacher now has a certain amount of the proof of Coulthard's championship-challenging credentials he demanded yesterday. If Coulthard can challenge him in the race, Schumacher should realise that he has a fight on his hands from an unexpected quarter.


To see full results from the qualifying session at the Canadian GP, click HERE.