Michael Schumacher Confident Ahead of Tomorrow's Race

World championship leader Michael Schumacher was full of confidence on Saturday after securing the 27th pole position of his career for Sunday's French Grand Prix.

The German, who clocked a best lap of one minute 15.632 seconds in his Ferrari, said his qualifying performance had left him feeling that "everything is going very smoothly".

He finished one-tenth of a second clear of nearest rival David Coulthard, who trails him by 22 points in the title race, and said: "To be honest, I had no worries at all.

"As you could see, my first run was spot-on and after that I only had to make a few adjustments to my set-up. I got my first run just right whereas some others didn't and that was a big help for me.

"The fact that David (Coulthard) was in his spare car made a difference because you don't want to go into qualifying in a car that you haven't been driving all weekend."

Schumacher set his fastest lap to go top of the time-sheets after 28 minutes of the hour-long session run in sunshine and dry conditions.

British McLaren driver Coulthard, whose session was hampered by an oil-leak problem during the morning's final free practice, pushed hard in the closing seconds and improved his time but not by enough to grab pole.

He also survived a wild spin in the second half of the session when he was trying hard to improve his time. He recovered the spin, regained control of his car with a power-spin and rejoined in a cloud of blue smoke.

Schumacher's Ferrari team mate, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, was third ahead of Finland's defending world champion Mika Hakkinen in the second McLaren.

German Ralf Schumacher was fifth for Williams and Briton Eddie Irvine sixth for the Jaguar team ahead of Canadian Jacques Villeneuve in a BAR and German Heinz-Harald FRentzen in a Jordan.

Coulthard said he was relieved to be on the front row of the grid after a day of problems including an oil-leak on his race car during the morning.

"I do feel for the mechanics because they have done a great job on my car and I am a little surprised and pleased to have finished up in second place," he said.

Coulthard also drew attention to a problem he had in the first corner where Ralf Schumacher pulled out of the pit lane in front of him and almost caused a collision.

"I am not particularly upset with Ralf because it could have been any driver," said the Scot. "But it is a place we have to look at. It could be quite dangerous apart from spoiling my lap. We need to try not to get into that kind of situation."