Ralf: Strategy cost me pole

The German only decided to make three qualifying runs instead of four in a bid to save his Michelin tyres for Sunday's race. It was going well for him as he topped the times for most of the session, until team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya beat his time by a scant 0.009 of a second with his third run 12 minutes from the end.

Schuey Jr only had left himself one run to better his time, but failed and had to settle for second on the grid. But he was far from disappointed

"It is very good that we could achieve this great result after having struggled a bit this morning [in practice]," he said. "It was planned from the start that I would have three runs, instead of the usual four. Juan hit back in his third stint, which meant that my strategy cost me pole position.

With both Williams cars on the front row, Michael Schumacher had to make do with third in his Ferrari.

"This should make Michael's life more difficult if he wants to overtake us in the race," said Ralf. "I hope I will be finally able to step on to the podium here at the Nurburgring."

Montoya admitted he was surprised to be on pole. "We changed the car quite a lot from this morning but in my first run I made a mistake, the second went better and on my third run I got pole," said the Colombian.

"I still don't know where the speed came from and I must admit that luck also played a part in my result."