Montoya Grabs Dramatic Pole at the British GP

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya continued his run of pole positions by claiming the top spot for Sunday's British Grand Prix after halting Ferrari's domination at Silverstone in Saturday's qualifying session.

Montoya claimed his fourth pole in a row with a last-minute dash which knocked Brazilian Rubens Barrichello off the top spot as his World Champion rival Michael Schumacher ended up on the second row of the grid for the fourth time in five races.

Williams driver Montoya's time of 1:18.998 was one and a half seconds faster than last year's pole position time and saw him finish just more than three hundredths of a second faster than the leading Ferrari.

Schumacher was a further one hundredth of a second slower in a top three which was covered, astonishingly, by just 0.044 seconds, with fourth-placed Ralf Schumacher just less than three tenths of a second slower.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen finished just ahead of his British McLaren-Mercedes teammate David Coulthard in fifth and sixth, while Renault were next with Italian Jarno Trulli, in seventh.

But he was their only top-ten representative because his British teammate Jenson Button hit trouble when the engine in his Renault blew half-way through the session. He was forced to run back to the pits to claim the spare with half the session remaining, and only managed 12th position.

Mika Salo, of Toyota, claimed eighth ahead of Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, of British American Racing Honda, who was ninth ahead the Sauber of Nick Heidfeld, who rounded out the top ten.

Schumacher had claimed the top time half way though the session with Williams-BMW rival Montoya in second and the McLaren pair of Coulthard and Raikkonen in third and fourth, but it would not remain that way for long.

Ralf Schumacher soon bumped his Williams-BMW teammate down to second and, a few minutes later, Ferrari returned to their usual one-two position when Barrichello cruised into second, 0.133 seconds behind his pace-setting teammate.

With little more than ten minutes to go, Barrichello attempted to bump his teammate off provisional pole and, after setting a faster time in the early sector, he kept the momentum going to pip Schumacher by just one hundredth of a second

But Montoya set the fastest time of the session in a last-minute dash for pole as Schumacher failed to improve on his time as the chequered flag fell to end the qualifying hour.

Jordan's hopes were dented when Italian Giancarlo Fisichella parked his EJ12 on the edge of the track and he finished down in 17th place with Takuma Sato ahead of him in 14th place.

Arrows, let into the race after a last-gasp deal was brokered with engine suppliers Cosworth, finished in 16th place, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and 18th, with Enrique Bernoldi.

Jaguar had a disastrous debut of their newly-modified R3 car, with Ulsterman Eddie Irvine managing only 19th fastest time and Spanish teammate Pedro de la Rosa finishing bottom of the pile after failing to get on track until the last minutes of the session.

But there will be only 21 cars in the race on Sunday as Malaysian Alex Yoong failed to get within the 107 percent of pole position in his Minardi to lend another blow to the struggling team.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:18.998 234.279 km/h 9 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:19.032 + 0.034 11 3. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:19.042 + 0.044 9 4. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:19.329 + 0.331 9 5. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:20.133 + 1.135 10 6. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:20.315 + 1.317 11 7. Trulli Renault (M) 1:20.516 + 1.518 10 8. Salo Toyota (M) 1:20.995 + 1.997 10 9. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:21.130 + 2.132 10 10. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:21.187 + 2.189 12 11. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:21.191 + 2.193 9 12. Button Renault (M) 1:21.247 + 2.249 8 13. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:21.274 + 2.276 9 14. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:21.337 + 2.339 8 15. McNish Toyota (M) 1:21.382 + 2.384 9 16. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:21.416 + 2.418 12 17. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:21.636 + 2.638 9 18. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:21.780 + 2.782 12 19. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:21.851 + 2.853 8 20. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:22.281 + 3.283 11 21. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:23.422 + 4.424 6 22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:24.785 + 5.787 12 * * Outside 107% All Timing Unofficial