Montoya Quickest in First Qualifying at Imola

Juan Pablo Montoya set the fastest time in Saturday's first qualifying session for the San Marino Grand Prix as he went more than six-tenths of a second quicker than his rivals at Imola.

Colombian Montoya, a later runner in the session, set the best time - a 1:19.805 - to lead a Williams-BMW one-two in the timesheets from team-mate Ralf Schumacher.

World Champion Michael Schumacher was third quickest for Ferrari, 0.635 seconds down on Montoya, with McLaren driver David Coulthard setting the fourth best time.

BAR-Honda driver Jenson Button continued his form with the fifth fastest time ahead of Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella and Rubens Barrichello, in the second Ferrari. Takuma Sato, of BAR-Honda, McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen and Toyota's Olivier Panis completed the top-ten.

Michael Schumacher set the benchmark time of 1:20.440 which Ferrari teammate Barrichello was almost five-tenths adrift of, and BAR-Honda's Button was 0.192 slower. But Ralf Schumacher, the seventh man on track, eclipsed the time of his brother to put his Williams-BMW at the top of the times by 0.017 seconds.

Fisichella produced a strong lap to move into fourth position ahead of the Ferrari of Barrichello, before Montoya became the first man to go under one minute 20 seconds when he went quicker than Ralf.

Pos Driver Team T1 T2 Time 1. (13) Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 22.933 49.696 1:19.805 2. (7) R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 23.105 49.943 1:20.423 + 0.618 3. (1) M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 23.109 50.089 1:20.440 + 0.635 4. (18) Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 23.242 50.125 1:20.566 + 0.761 5. (3) Button BAR-Honda (M) 23.220 50.377 1:20.632 + 0.827 6. (11) Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 23.059 50.053 1:20.716 + 0.911 7. (2) Barrichello Ferrari (B) 23.170 50.216 1:20.927 + 1.122 8. (5) Sato BAR-Honda (M) 23.132 50.142 1:20.984 + 1.179 9. (20) Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 23.379 50.519 1:21.181 + 1.376 10. (9) Panis Toyota (M) 23.580 50.642 1:21.231 + 1.426 11. (8) Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 23.546 50.709 1:21.458 + 1.653 12. (4) Trulli Renault (M) 23.461 50.917 1:21.669 + 1.864 13. (10) da Matta Toyota (M) 23.446 50.616 1:21.737 + 1.932 14. (6) Alonso Renault (M) 23.438 50.747 1:21.799 + 1.994 15. (12) Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 23.611 51.188 1:22.154 + 2.349 16. (14) Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 23.703 51.340 1:22.246 + 2.441 17. (15) Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 23.809 51.601 1:23.055 + 3.250 18. (16) Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 24.507 52.738 1:24.643 + 4.838 19. (17) Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 25.075 53.866 1:26.463 + 6.658 20. (19) Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 25.200 54.213 1:27.319 + 7.514 All timing unofficial