Qualifying: Montoya heads Williams 1-2

The copious power of BMW's V10 meant the duo were always going to be the ones to beat, but right until Montoya put in a staggering final sector on what would ultimately be the pole lap, double race-winner Schumacher had the edge in the voting.

The German had banged in a 1m38.458s lap with 25 minutes of the hour gone and Montoya's instant reply was a 'mere' 1m38.605s. But with 25 minutes left, the pair took to the track again. Ralf lowered the mark to 1m38.136s, but seconds later, Montoya's head-on assault on the tight stadium section gave him the nod by just 0.019s and subdued a near-capacity crowd.

The fact the Williams FW23 was so effective in the final, twisty section was also testament to BMW horsepower. More grunt meant the cars could drag a higher rear wing angle through the air. Either way they looked at it, they were on to a winner.

In the closing minutes of the session, the front-runners decamped en masse for a final tilt at the pole, but waved yellows after Luciano Burti's Prost smote the barriers backwards in the stadium meant Montoya's first GP pole was in the pocket.

"It's really good," said Montoya. "We've worked hard all year and had our ups and downs, but we've finally got it together. (Technical director) Patrick (Head) had a little chat with me before qualifying and that helped a lot too."

Behind the Williams parade came the small matter of the fight for the world championship. Title favourite Michael Schumacher's Ferrari lines up fourth, having been pipped by McLaren-Mercedes' freshly re-motivated Mika Hakkinen for the third slot.

Right behind the second Schumacher comes the second McLaren - that of title outsider David Coulthard. It wasn't what the Scot wanted... To stand any chance of taking the scrap much further, DC needs to bite hard into Schumacher's 37-point advantage.

Basically, if the German outscores Coulthard on Michael's home asphalt, it's effectively game over for the McLaren man's title ambitions. Having Hakkinen behind him, but ahead of Schumacher would have been best case scenario, but a handling imbalance that wore tyres down to the canvas in just a couple of laps meant that was never going to be a possibility.

Sixth and completing the monopoly of the first three rows by the 'Big Three' was Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello. But after starting off the weekend snappily enough, last year's German GP winner looks somewhat off the boil as things progress.

Best of the rest? Nick Heidfeld's Sauber-Petronas. Jaguar Racing had dearly hoped it would be one of the green machines, but Eddie Irvine's Friday prediction that they'd be P8 at best became uncannily true - except that it was Pedro de la Rosa in the slot, not the Ulsterman. For his part, Irvine will have to battle into the points from 10th, behind the Jordan-Honda of Jarno Trulli.

Jordan had hoped that after a controversial couple of days, they could have taken seventh. But engine problems for Trulli saw him parking the car out in the woods, then embarking on an odyssey to get back to the pits. It was amusing to watch - unless you were Eddie Jordan. The Italian arrived back with 90 seconds to go. No chance of another run...

Jacques Villeneuve finished up best of the BAR-Hondas in 11th, ahead of a relatively subdued Kimi Raikkonen in the second Sauber, with Olivier Panis's BAR and the Prost of veteran Jean Alesi filling out the seventh row.

Ricardo Zonta, who stepped into the still warm seat of the sacked Heinz-Harald Frentzen for Hockenheim, wound up 15th, alongside Burti's Prost-Acer and just ahead of both Benetton-Renaults.

Jenson Button had the upper hand over team mate Giancarlo Fisichella in the opening salvoes, but the Italian fought back to be best Benetton boy by just over a tenth of a second when Button's engine let go in grand style in the closing minutes of the session.

On the verge of announcing its Jaguar/Cosworth engine deal for 2002, Arrows was shoved back to reality with 19th and 20th on the grid, ahead of perennial backmarkers Minardi. And yes, Tarso Marques was slower than Fernando Alonso, by nearly eight tenths of a second.

For full qualifying results, click here.