Schuey admits qualifying error

The newly crowned world champion made a small error at the final corner of the track, the long Curva Parabolica, and could do nothing to challenge Barrichello's pole time - the fastest in F1 history.

Speaking after being troubled by set-up problems in the morning free practice session, Schumacher said: "I was struggling to find the right balance and we found a little problem this morning which we solved.

"But I did something in the last corner which had nothing to do with set-up. It was my fault, although my time would not have been good enough for pole position.

"It is tight but we are in a good position for tomorrow which is what counts."

Pole position man Barrichello, whose average speed of 161.820mph was the fastest pole lap in history, believed he had delivered the best lap of his career to grab the front spot.

"I never did as much as I did on that lap," he said. "It has been phenomenal - getting the lap correct and doing such a good job with the car."

Not everyone was convinced with the world champion's explanation however. "Well I think every driver will always say that they made one or two mistakes," said Williams director of engineering Patrick Head. "Juan [Pablo Montoya], when he was on his slowing down lap, was annoyed with himself because he was saying in sector two that he had made a couple of mistakes. He thought he could have done better.

"But Michael doesn't make that many mistakes and if he does, they are usually done in places where he gets away with it."