Raikkonen Grabs First Pole at the European GP

McLaren-Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen grabbed his first-ever pole position with a flawless drive in qualifying for the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

Raikkonen, who lost his Championship lead to Michael Schumacher after the last race in Canada, denied the Ferrari driver top spot on the grid for his home race as he snatched pole with the final lap of the session.

Running last in the session, Raikkonen's time of 1:31.523 was enough to take a maiden pole after Michael Schumacher had been destined to give the home crowd the qualifying result they wanted. Schumacher was just 0.032 seconds behind with brother Ralf and Juan Pablo Montoya making it an all-Williams-BMW second row of the grid.

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello could only set the fifth best time ahead of Renault's Italian driver Jarno Trulli, who had been at the top of the timesheets until the big five completed their single lap runs.

Olivier Panis continued his impressive weekend form by setting the seventh best time for Toyota with Renault's Fernando Alonso, McLaren driver David Coulthard and Toyota's Cristiano da Matta completing the top ten.

BAR-Honda's Jacques Villeneuve, the first man of the track, made an error at the first corner and set a disappointing time, which was immediately bettered by 1.647 as Toyota's da Matta posted a respectable time.

Jaguar driver Antonio Pizzonia failed to trouble da Matta's time as he ended more than a second slower following his run, but Toyota's second driver Panis did take top spot after lowering the best time by 0.599 seconds. Jos Verstappen had a moment in the first sector when his Minardi went into a slide, with the Dutchman completing a disappointing run almost four seconds down on Panis.

Minardi's Justin Wilson was unable to beat teammate Verstappen's time as he completed his run more than four seconds off the pace, but fellow Briton Ralph Firman produced a solid display to go third for Jordan.

Sauber completed an engine change on Nick Heidfeld's car in just 18 minutes before his run, but the German ran wide into the gravel on his flying lap and stalled his car. He will start from the back of the grid.

Mark Webber was released to complete his out lap while Heidfeld's car was removed from the side of the track, and Jaguar's Australian driver jumped to third ahead of Firman. BAR-Honda's Jenson Button was marginally slower than Webber as he took fourth place, and Sauber's Heinz-Harald Frentzen followed him on track and slotted in to sixth place.

Jordan driver Giancarlo Fisichella produced a tidy lap around the Nurburgring as he went almost three-tenths quicker than teammate Firman. Spaniard Alonso, who on Friday ruled out his chances of victory this season, was the first man to challenge Panis' place at the top of the timesheets, but the Renault driver finished 0.074 seconds down on the Frenchman.

But Alonso's teammate Trulli was able to knock Panis off top spot with a time 0.374 seconds and was able to take things easy in the final sector after setting the best times in the first two sectors.

McLaren's Coulthard once again failed to find his best form in the one-lap qualifying as he finished seven-tenths slower than Trulli's time, although he did post the best final sector time to recover from running wide earlier in his run.

Barrichello was down on Trulli after the first and second sectors and got out of shape at the final corner, but still managed to shave two-tenths of a second off Trulli's best time.

But the Brazilian's hopes of starting from the head of the grid were ended by Ralf Schumacher, who took another 0.161 seconds off the provisional pole time. Montoya also bettered Barrichello to go second.

Michael Schumacher sent the crowd wild by going six-hundredths of a second quicker of his brother, but Raikkonen failed to read the script with a brilliant lap to take pole.

Pos Driver Team T1 T2 Time 1. (20) Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 29.762 68.002 1:31.523 2. (19) M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 29.893 67.963 1:31.555 + 0.032 3. (17) R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 29.741 68.044 1:31.619 + 0.096 4. (18) Montoya Williams BMW (M) 29.741 68.067 1:31.765 + 0.242 5. (16) Barrichello Ferrari (B) 29.890 68.274 1:31.780 + 0.257 6. (14) Trulli Renault (M) 29.869 68.135 1:31.976 + 0.453 7. (4) Panis Toyota (M) 30.026 68.484 1:32.350 + 0.827 8. (13) Alonso Renault (M) 30.087 68.641 1:32.424 + 0.901 9. (15) Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 30.185 69.067 1:32.742 + 1.219 10. (2) da Matta Toyota (M) 30.410 69.196 1:32.949 + 1.426 11. (9) Webber Jaguar Cosworth (M) 30.456 69.156 1:33.066 + 1.543 12. (10) Button BAR Honda (B) 30.734 69.494 1:33.395 + 1.872 13. (12) Fisichella Jordan Ford (B) 30.510 69.658 1:33.553 + 2.030 14. (7) Firman Jordan Ford (B) 30.679 69.730 1:33.827 + 2.304 15. (11) Frentzen Sauber Petronas (B) 30.556 69.997 1:34.000 + 2.477 16. (3) Pizzonia Jaguar Cosworth (M) 30.725 70.000 1:34.159 + 2.636 17. (1) Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 31.128 70.313 1:34.596 + 3.073 18. (5) Verstappen Minardi Cosworth (B) 31.280 71.821 1:36.318 + 4.795 19. (6) Wilson Minardi Cosworth (B) 31.462 71.961 1:36.485 + 4.962 20. (8) Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) - - No Time Pos ----- Sector 1 ----- ----- Sector 2 ----- ----- Sector 3 ----- 1. R.Schumacher 29.741 M.Schumacher 38.070 Barrichello 23.506 2. Montoya 29.741 Raikkonen 38.240 Raikkonen 23.521 3. Raikkonen 29.762 Trulli 38.266 R.Schumacher 23.575 4. Trulli 29.869 R.Schumacher 38.303 M.Schumacher 23.592 5. Barrichello 29.890 Montoya 38.326 Coulthard 23.675 6. M.Schumacher 29.893 Barrichello 38.384 Montoya 23.698 7. Panis 30.026 Panis 38.458 da Matta 23.753 8. Alonso 30.087 Alonso 38.554 Alonso 23.783 9. Coulthard 30.185 Webber 38.700 Trulli 23.841 10. da Matta 30.410 Button 38.760 Panis 23.866 11. Webber 30.456 da Matta 38.786 Fisichella 23.895 12. Fisichella 30.510 Coulthard 38.882 Button 23.901 13. Frentzen 30.556 Firman 39.051 Webber 23.910 14. Firman 30.679 Fisichella 39.148 Frentzen 24.003 15. Pizzonia 30.725 Villeneuve 39.185 Firman 24.097 16. Button 30.734 Pizzonia 39.275 Pizzonia 24.159 17. Villeneuve 31.128 Frentzen 39.441 Villeneuve 24.283 18. Verstappen 31.280 Wilson 40.499 Verstappen 24.497 19. Wilson 31.462 Verstappen 40.541 Wilson 24.524 Top Speed: 304.9 (Raikkonen, McLaren-Mercedes) All timing unofficial