Montoya Beats Schumacher Brothers to Pole in Brazil

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya claimed his fourth career pole for Williams-BMW on Saturday as World Champion Michael Schumacher failed to perform well enough to topple his rival in the new Ferrari during qualifying for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Montoya, who is second in the Championship two points behind German Schumacher, fended off a late challenge from his Ferrari rival as the Michelin-shod Williams team benefited from track temperatures of 45 degrees in the searing heat at Interlagos.

Schumacher, using Bridgestone tyres on his Ferrari, led the chase of the dominant Williams cars and a late run saw him claim second to split the Grove-based team's drivers and drop his brother Ralf down to third.

David Coulthard, who is yet to finish a race this year, claimed fourth in the McLaren-Mercedes but could not match the pace of the lead three and finished almost half a second down on his rivals but one place ahead of his fifth-placed Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Italian Jarno Trulli and Briton Jenson Button made it a good day for Renault as they benefited from the performance advantage of the Michelin rubber to claim sixth and seventh fastest times respectively.

Rubens Barrichello, hoping for glory in his home race, finished with the eighth fastest time, but is to have that stripped after passing a red light in the final practice session earlier in the day.

However, the penalty will not drop him a place as he set a time fast enough to beat Nick Heidfeld, from Germany, who recovered from a poor start to the session when the team was forced to change the engine in his Sauber car before qualifying to end up ninth and Finn Mika Salo put in an impressive performance for Toyota with tenth place.

Pos Driver Team Times 1. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:13.114 212.167 km/h 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:13.241 + 0.127 3. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:13.328 + 0.214 4. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:13.565 + 0.451 5. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:13.595 + 0.481 6. Trulli Renault (M) 1:13.611 + 0.497 7. Button Renault (M) 1:13.665 + 0.551 8. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:13.935 + 0.821 9. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:14.233 + 1.119 10. Salo Toyota (M) 1:14.443 + 1.329 11. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:14.464 + 1.350 12. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:14.533 + 1.419 13. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:14.537 + 1.423 14. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:14.748 + 1.634 15. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:14.760 + 1.646 16. McNish Toyota (M) 1:14.990 + 1.876 17. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:14.996 + 1.882 18. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:15.112 + 1.998 19. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:15.296 + 2.175 20. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:15.340 + 2.226 21. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:15.355 + 2.241 22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:16.728 + 3.614 All Timing Unofficial