Qualifying: Montoya's fifth pole in a row

The Colombian's incredible qualifying run looked unlikely to continue after Saturday morning's free practice sessions, when the Williams-BMWs had appeared to struggle for pace. But when it counted, Montoya again showed just how quick the car and Michelin's tyres are over one lap.

"I am suprised to be on pole, to be honest," Montoya admitted. "We were even worried about the pace of the McLarens before qualifying."

He had no reason to be. Only the Ferraris came close to matching Montoya over the one-hour session, with Schumacher enduring varying fortunes throughout. The German's first run was ruled out by the officials after he made a mistake at the final chicane and cut across the gravel. Then his third run was discounted for cutting the Nurburgring chicane.

But Schumacher had no complaints about either decision. "Anyway, the first one was too slow!" he said. "And they quite rightly took my time away for the third run."

Schumacher's second flier had been good enough for provisional pole, but Montoya's third attempt re-established him back at the top of the timesheets. It all came down to the fourth and final runs.

Barrichello was the first of the trio to cross the line and went second. Then in the final minute Montoya improved on his pole time to dip below the 1m12s mark with a brilliant 1m11.985s lap. Schumacher followed moments later. It was close, but the world champion had not done enough. His time of 1m12.008s put him second on the grid.

Those final minutes also sorted out the rest of the top six. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen took an excellent fourth, as Williams' Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard were again overshadowed by their respective team-mates. The German and the Scot had to settle for fifth and sixth.

Jenson Button clearly had something to prove in this session. This afternoon an announcement is expected to confirm that Renault will drop him next year in favour of Fernando Alonso. The Briton gave the best possible response to that by out-qualifying his team-mate Jarno Trulli to be the best non-Williams/Ferrari/McLaren. The Renaults will line up seventh and eighth tomorrow.

Behind them will be Eddie Irvine, who showed that the heavily revised Jaguar R3 may be a contender afterall. At Silverstone two weeks ago, it appeared the changes had not been good enough, but here Irvine was always on for a top 10 position and the Ulsterman deserved his ninth place on the grid.

His team-mate Pedro de la Rosa suffered appalling luck. The Spaniard's car broke down as he left the pitlane for his second run, forcing him to switch to the spare that was set up for Irvine. Then that car let him down later in the session too. He will start 15th tomorrow.

The top 10 looked set to be rounded out by the lone Jordan of Takuma Sato, as Giancarlo Fisichella sat out qualifying following his heavy shunt in morning practice. The Japanese put in his best F1 qualifying performance, but was bumped down to 14th in the final minutes by the Saubers and BARs. Instead it was Nick Heidfeld who claimed 10th place.

With Fisichella mising qualifying, only 19 cars will start the French GP. Arrows drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi did turn out for the session, but to say that they even participated is something of an overstatement.

The two Orange-sponsored cars were the first out on to the track. They completed 'flying laps', but slow enough to ensure that they were outside of the 107 percent rule. It was enough to ensure that Arrows will keep its place in F1 while the rows over its ownership continue behind closed doors.