Qual: Ferrari 1-2 at Indy

Schumacher, who was the 12th driver out, set the initial pace with a 1m10.400s, which remained unchallenged until BAR-Honda's Sato emerged from the pits. The Japanese driver had some face to save following his embarrassing incident with Felipe Massa in Friday's second practice.

While he was down on Schumacher in the first sector he weaved his way through the middle sector with ease to put himself eight hundredths of a second clear of the German. But he was no match for the Ferrari's speed in the final sector and slipped to second, two tenths down.

But along came Barrichello, who has dominated proceedings all weekend and was determined his name should top the charts after his hard work. Despite being down on his team-mate in the first sector, the Brazilian put in a stunning middle and final sector to topple Schumacher by nearly two tenths of a second.

"I just tried to make it an easy lap, be on the limit but make no mistakes, and it was my first pole of the season so I'm very happy," said a jubilant Barrichello. "The tyres have been good all the time and we made some progress since yesterday, but I think Michael made even more progress than me, so we were very close together.

"Before pre-qualifying we made a small change and the car was a bit better. Knowing I got pole against Michael today means I got pole against the best."

Schumacher revealed that he had been fighting oversteer in the middle sector and actually expected to finish further down the pack.

"In a way I'm pleased, we're both on the front row and, naturally, I'd have preferred to be in his place, but Rubens did a better job," he said. "I struggled in the middle sector, I had to fight far too much oversteer in there and lost a reasonable amount of time. There was obviously a doubt that I'd keep that position. Actually I was expecting to drop further back."

Sato was delighted with his effort, the third time he has qualified in the top three this year and is optimistic for the race tomorrow.

"It's a great result for the team today," he said. "Considering I lost most of a practice session yesterday I'm really pleased for myself to be back on the pace. The Ferraris are always strong on race pace, but we have shown consistency on the long runs. We're hoping we can get close to them tomorrow afternoon."

Team-mate Jenson Button was no match for the Ferraris or Sato and had to settle for fourth spot over half a second down on Barrichello's pace. The Briton admitted that he had changed the set-up on his car before his run but suffered severe oversteer as a result.

"We changed the car before the final qualifying run for what we thought would be for the better. But I had huge amounts of oversteer. Not good at all," said the Brit.

Williams duo Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher could do no better than fifth and sixth respectively, the Colombian though can console himself on the fact that he at least set the fastest time in the speed trap at 340kph.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen put in an impressive lap in what is probably the last run for the MP4-19 with its successor expected to make its debut at the next race in France. The Finn will line up seventh on the grid. Team-mate David Coulthard could only manage the 12th quickest time, the disconsolate Scot complained of an edgy car and was hopeful that it would indeed be the last race he had to drive it.

"It's the last race with this car, hopefully. It felt as unpredictable as usual. It slid around a lot in the corners," he said.

Toyota's Olivier Panis, who made a surprise appearance near the top of the timesheets in pre-qualifying, had to settle for eighth spot while team-mate Cristiano da Matta is four places down in 11th.

Sandwiched between the two Toyota's is the Renault of Fernando Alonso (9th) and Jaguar's Mark Webber (10th), who is running an upgraded Cosworth engine in his Big Cat. Webber's team-mate Christian Klien put in a respectable lap to take him 13th, but Alonso's stablemate Jarno Trulli didn't even manage to complete his flying lap after he suffered from a gearbox problem.

"It was a gearbox problem, I couldn't do anything about it," he said. "It will be very tough for me to start from the back."

Further back, the Sauber duo of Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa fended off the Jordan's of Nick Heidfeld and a returning Giorgio Pantano who missed the last race in Canada.

It was business as usual right at the back though with Minardi's Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner bring up the rear in 18th and 19th following Trulli's failure to set a time.