Montoya Grabs Fifth Consecutive Pole in France

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya claimed his fifth consecutive pole position on Saturday after winning a tough fight with Ferrari drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in qualifying for the French Grand Prix.

German Schumacher, who is hoping to secure his fifth world crown at Magny Cours on Sunday, will start the race alongside the Williams-BMW of Montoya after losing out on top spot for the sixth time in a row.

The focus was on the front of the field as the top spot continually switched between Montoya, Schumacher and Barrichello and, after setting his best time with 17 minutes to go, Montoya held onto top spot as the Ferraris failed to fight back.

Rubens Barrichello, in the second Ferrari, finished third, two tenths of a second behind, and will start alongside Finn Kimi Raikkonen in the lead McLaren-Mercedes.

German Ralf Schumacher, of Williams-BMW, and Scot David Coulthard of McLaren-Mercedes, were fifth and sixth fastest, running true to Coulthard's predictions after he dimmed his hopes when he topped the times on Friday.

The Renault pair of Briton Jenson Button and Italian Jarno Trulli lined up seventh and eighth as the grid continued in predictable team order, but Ulsterman Eddie Irvine upset the system when he put his Jaguar up to ninth with German Nick Heidfeld of Sauber completing the top ten.

After failing to set a single lap time in any of the four practice sessions as they held out while negotiations continued over their future, Arrows were the first team out in the qualifying session and briefly led the field.

As the temperature rose to 26 degrees, Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi and German Heinz-Harald Frentzen both set early times, but Jordan's Takuma Sato proved they were well off the pace by going more than four seconds faster on his first run.

Frentzen's time of 1:18.497 and Bernoldi's effort of 1:19.843 were both pushed outside the 107 percent qualifying limit when Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello cruised to the top of the times with a 1:13.058 lap.

That was after ten minutes, and at the same time Australian Mark Webber hit problems when his Minardi stopped out on the circuit after setting a time of 1:14.800.

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa was another man left fighting the gremlins when his Jaguar rolled to a halt as he tried to exit the pits to begin his second run, but there was no such problems at Williams-BMW.

With just more than a quarter of the session gone, Montoya shot to the top to claim provisional pole with a 1:12.714 seconds lap, more than two tenths of a second inside last year's pole, and his teammate Schumacher rose up to second.

But Schumacher was yet to make his first flying run and, when he did, he was immediately faster on the first two sectors. But once again he was to come unstuck at the final chicane, which has been giving him problems throughout the weekend.

He hit the first apex then took a bump in the second part of the chicane and was flicked out onto the gravel, going straight on to avoid a spin. That lap was deleted because he missed the turn, and he aborted the run.

Montoya remained on top but, with just under 25 minutes gone, Barrichello went fastest, beating Montoya's time by 0.162 seconds, while behind the lead three it was Coulthard and Raikkonen with Irvine still hanging on to sixth.

Five minutes later Montoya was back on top, but Schumacher was back on track. He was a shade under Montoya's first sector time, almost two tenths under on the second split, and held it together around the final chicane to claim provisional pole by 0.059 seconds.

But Montoya went faster again and returned to the top of the times with a lap of 1:12.117 seconds, with Michael Schumacher quickly following him only by 95 thousandths of a second, before having his time disallowed for cutting the Nurburgring chicane on his outlap.

Barrichello moved to second with three minutes to go, missing out on pole by eight hundredths of a second.

Montoya improved his time further despite an out of control moment during his final flying lap, while Schumacher shot up to second, just 0.023 seconds behind the Colombian in the dying seconds.

Neither Arrows cars managed to qualify, while Giancarlo Fisichella looks to be also out of the race after he was unable to take part following his crash in the morning practice session.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:11.985 212.594 km/h 12 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:12.008 + 0.023 12 3. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:12.197 + 0.212 12 4. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:12.244 + 0.259 12 5. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:12.424 + 0.439 12 6. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:12.498 + 0.513 12 7. Button Renault (M) 1:12.761 + 0.776 12 8. Trulli Renault (M) 1:13.030 + 1.045 12 9. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:13.188 + 1.203 12 10. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:13.370 + 1.385 12 11. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:13.457 + 1.472 12 12. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:13.501 + 1.516 12 13. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:13.506 + 1.521 12 14. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:13.542 + 1.557 12 15. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:13.656 + 1.671 8 16. Salo Toyota (M) 1:13.837 + 1.852 12 17. McNish Toyota (M) 1:13.949 + 1.964 12 18. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:14.800 + 2.815 6 19. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:16.798 + 4.813 7 20. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:18.497 + 6.512 3 * 21. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:19.843 + 7.858 3 * *Outside 107% All Timing Unofficial