Focus: Canada Gears up for Montoya-Schumacher III

Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya must hope it will be third time lucky when they line up together on the front row for Sunday's potentially explosive Canadian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari and Williams Formula One drivers have found themselves in that starting position twice this season and on each occasion they have tangled after only a couple of hundred metres.

Now they will face off again at Canada's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, an island track that has seen four first lap collisions in the last five years.

In Malaysia, four times World Champion Schumacher was on pole position and Montoya second. Their cars touched at the first corner and the Colombian was given a controversial drive-through penalty.

Two weeks later, in Brazil, the starting positions were reversed but the rivals still collided at the fourth corner after Schumacher had squeezed past the Williams to seize the lead at the second turn. Montoya then hit the rear of the German's Ferrari and lost his front wing.

He angrily protested afterwards that Schumacher - who has been criticised in the past for veering starts and uncompromising driving - had behaved unfairly in closing the door on him. Since Brazil, Montoya has not had a chance to fight Schumacher for the first corner.

Although the Colombian qualified on pole at the last race in Monaco, it was McLaren's David Coulthard who lined up alongside on the front row and beat him. Montoya said after that race that Williams needed to improve their 'launch control' software to ensure they were not left standing again in future.

"I think we should be alright," he said on Saturday. "If it goes well, it goes well. If not, what can I do?"

Asked on Saturday how he would tackle the tricky start in Canada, given that Montoya was unlikely to back off, Schumacher replied: "A good racer has to be like that.

"We are all the same...we know what we have to do. It's going to be tight and whoever has the better start maybe does the job in the first corner."