Ralf Rules Out McLaren for Pole

German Ralf Schumacher is expecting to have to fight against Williams teammate Juan Pablo Montoya and his brother Michael for pole position in tomorrow's qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Williams driver, winner of the Malaysian Grand Prix two weeks ago, finished in fourth place in Friday's practice session at the Interlagos circuit, behind his teammate Montoya and in front of his Ferrari driver Michael who was fifth.

All three drivers were off McLaren driver David Coulthard's pace, the Scot being the quickest man today at the wheel of the Mercedes-powered MP4-17. However, Ralf is not expecting Coulthard to be able to fight for pole position on Saturday.

"I am still not happy with the set-up of my car," said Schumacher. "We are still fighting with understeer. From my perspective our lap times show how strong we can be here. We should have sorted out the set-up problems by tomorrow, anyway.

"It is quite difficult to evaluate to day's fastest times, as we don't know how much fuel the other teams were running. I think anyway that tomorrow's pole position is going to be decided between Michael, Juan and myself."