Qualifying: Schumacher on pole

Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen traded positions at the top of the qualifying timesheets, but it was the German who came out on top, posting a stunning 1m11.708s best lap eight minutes from the end of the sesssion. The Ferrari driver was dominant enough to be able to step out of his car with two minutes left and watch the rest of the field fail to match his best from the back of the garage.

Hakkinen had headed the pack twice during the session, but the McLaren-Mercedes ace's best lap of 1m11.945s was not good enough to prevent Schumacher taking his 10th pole of the year and his second at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Debris from the engine cover of Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton-Renault, which had blown off on the main straight, prevented any fast times in the closing minutes.

Ralf Schumacher also headed the times midway through the session in his Williams-BMW, but despite improving his time to a 1m11.986s best could not get on to the front row of the grid. The German was able to outqualify team mate Juan Pablo Montoya, however, the Colombian only just edging out the second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello to take fourth place.

David Coulthard had a nightmare session, never consistently troubling the frontrunners and eventually ending up in a disappointing seventh position behind the Sauber of Nick Heidfeld. Equally disappointed was Coulthard's future team mate Kimi Raikkonen, the Finn lining up in 11th position, some 0.4 seconds behind his Sauber colleague.

Jarno Trulli was the best Jordan-Honda driver in eighth place, just 0.002 seconds ahead of team mate Jean Alesi. Jenson Button, continuing his impressive end-of-season return to form, edged out Fisichella's second Benetton-Renault, while Eddie Irvine was Jaguar's top cat with 13th position ahead of Pedro de la Rosa in 16th spot. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was the top Prost driver in 15th.

A couple of places further back, an heroic performance from Minardi rookie Fernando Alonso netted him the 17th slot.

British American Racing had a torrid time again, with Olivier Panis ending the session well ahead of former Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve in 14th place. Villeneuve, who has struggled all weekend, was only just able to hold off the Arrows of Enrique Bernoldi and Jos Verstappen, the second Prost of Tomas Enge (who suffered a late spin into the tyres at turn eight) for 18th. Alex Yoong completed the field in his Minardi.

For full qualifying results click here.