Qualifying: Michael shows his brother who’s boss

Schuey Sr's pole lap pushed the Nurburgring's benchmark time into the stratosphere, with his Ferrari stopping the clocks at 1m14.960s - a whopping 2.569s off the existing pole record.

With track temperatures still struggling to top the 20-degree mark, no top runners bothered to venture out until a quarter of the timed hour had already elapsed. But when the track action started in earnest, it looked like the Williams-BMW and Michelin combination was the one to have.

With 25 minutes gone, Ralf Schumacher blasted in a 1m15.335s lap for the provisional pole. Michael responded with a 1m15.491s flyer, but when both Williams cars ventured out again with 25 minutes left, it looked like game over: Ralf reduced the pole time to 1m15.226 and Juan Pablo Montoya made it an all-Williams front row with a 1m15.490s.

A couple of minutes of thinking later and Michael was out again. The German was noticeably more committed on the brakes and found almost three tenths of a second compared to the younger Schumacher by the second split.

As he crossed the line, the 1m14.960s on the timing screens was good enough for pole by 0.266s and proof once again of how the Bridgestone/Michelin tyre war has pushed corner speeds into previously uncharted territory.

In the final minutes of the session, every Tom, Dick, Harry and Ralf ventured out for one last shot, but nobody could get near a time that even Michael was a little surprised at.

"I was confident with what I saw yesterday, but I didn't think we could go that fast," said the world champion. "We improved the car for this morning, but when I saw the times developing out of the practice session so fast, I was very surprised.

"We had not had a chance to go that fast and when we did managed it in qualifying it was more than I thought we could achieve."

The Williams duo's mid-session times were good enough to keep second and third until the end, with Rubens Barrichello putting his Ferrari fourth, despite the team hurriedly preparing the spare car for him during the middle portion of the hour.

McLaren, which ruled the roost during Friday practice, had to make do with the third row on Mercedes' home territory. David Coulthard spun at the final corner trying to make a last gasp bid for the second row, but will start fifth in a race he took the pole for just 12 months ago.

The Scot's team mate Mika Hakkinen will be sixth after complaining of an inability to put the power down.

Continuing the symmetry, the Jordan-Hondas of Jarno Trulli and Heinz-Harald Frentzen took seventh and eighth, with the Sauber-Petronas pairing of Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld in ninth and 10th.

Heidfeld squeezing onto the fifth row meant all four Germans in the grid had qualified in the top 10 - good news for the massed ranks of pyrotechnic-wielding Teutons in attendance.

Jacques Villeneuve had tried for an early time, hoping a clear track would do him a favour, but could only put his BAR-Honda 11th, one spot ahead of Eddie Irvine's Jaguar. For the Ulsterman, it was a superb effort after a trying two days of practice.

Giancarlo Fisichella pulled a time out of the ether and put his Benetton-Renault an amazing 15th, but his team mate Jenson Button again wallowed at the blunt end of the grid, taking 20th - ahead of only the Minardis.

For full qualifying results, click here.