Montoya Ready for Next Round with Schumacher

Juan Pablo Montoya will be facing a new Ferrari but the same old Michael Schumacher when the two Formula One rivals resume their battle in Brazil this weekend.

World Champion Schumacher is due to give Ferrari's F2002 its first race outing at Interlagos on Sunday after using last year's car with considerable success at the first two Grands Prix.

There may be lingering doubts about reliability but Schumacher expects to be as fast as ever in a race that he has won three times before. That will be a comforting thought after he came third in Malaysia behind a Williams one-two of younger brother Ralf and Montoya after a collision with the Colombian at the first corner.

Schumacher still leads the drivers' standings, two points clear of Montoya, but Williams have seized the initiative in the Constructors' Championship and look a strong bet for round three.

Ralf will be a contender again, while McLaren hope last year's race winner David Coulthard will secure his first points of the season after being sidelined by gearbox and engine gremlins so far. But the bumpy Interlagos circuit, nestling in a natural bowl outside Sao Paulo, is Montoya territory.

Apart from being the closest race to his homeland, Brazil was where Montoya last year suddenly shrugged off the hype and showed in only his third Formula One race that he could challenge Ferrari's Schumacher head-on.

He roared audaciously past the German and led for more than half the race until he lapped Jos Verstappen and was hit in the rear by the Dutchman's Arrows.

Home Race

Verstappen has since lost his seat at Arrows and Montoya does not make a big deal of the incident.

"I was surprised when he hit me but I was quite happy with the race," he said when asked about it. "I passed Michael, I pulled away from him. What else can you ask from the beginning of the year? We'll see what happens this year, it could be quite interesting. I'm really looking forward to it."

"Two races, Brazil and the United States, are like my two home races," added the Colombian.

Montoya's hero Ayrton Senna was the last South American to win in Brazil, a year before his death in 1994, and the colourful crowd is still one of the noisiest and most enthusiastic of any in the world. The race has also been a key pointer to the season for more than a decade, with the winner in Brazil routinely ending the year as champion or runner-up.

"The Latin temperament is a bit out of control (in Brazil). That's why it's quite good fun. You get a lot of Colombians there. I enjoyed driving there last year a lot," said Montoya.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, who will be driving the old Ferrari again, might be expected to enjoy his home race more than others but his record makes depressing reading.

Early Collision

Barrichello has failed to finish the last seven Brazilian Grands Prix in a row and last year was blamed heavily for an early collision with Ralf Schumacher - who crashed into him in Australia this month.

All must beware this time, with the International Automobile Federation introducing a new sanction from this weekend.

The stewards now have the power to demote drivers 10 places on the grid at the following Grand Prix if deemed to have caused an 'avoidable' incident - as Montoya was controversially in Malaysia.

Sauber's 20-year-old Brazilian Felipe Massa is making his Brazilian debut as the only home driver to have scored a point so far this season. On that basis, he is already ahead of Jordan and British American Racing, both still pointless after two races.