Near misses for pole man Rubens

On his first qualifying run Barrichello ran off in Turn 8/9 on oil deposited by Jarno Trulli's Renault and then had a close call when Mika Salo's Toyota almost collected him at the end of the front straight in the braking area for Turn 1.

Barrichello said: "It was a scary moment. I was doing almost 200mph at the time! I thought it was going to be a big shunt. I actually managed to keep going and go quicker on my second lap on that run because the tyres were holding up well."

As far as beating Schumacher was concerned, Rubens added: "It was close between us in Imola and Barcelona and I said to myself: not today, and tried even harder."

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn reported that Schumacher's session was spoiled by a braking problem and failure to get a clean lap. Schumacher took the T-car for his last run, which gave him his grid time.