Schumacher Celebrates 'Special' Pole

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher put last weekend's bizarre Monaco crash behind him on Saturday by blasting to pole position for his home European Grand Prix.

The six-times World Champion romped to his fifth pole in seven starts with 1:28.351 lap that made his opponents look slow. It was the 60th pole of the German's Formula One career, five short of Brazilian Ayrton Senna's record.

"It's always something special," said Schumacher of appearing at the Nurburgring, the closest circuit to his boyhood home in Kerpen near Cologne. "It's the motivation you get from all the enthusiasm you see on the grandstands.

"It's a race I really look forward to, especially after Monaco. Hopefully we can win here."

The German will be gunning for his sixth victory of the season after his run of five in a row ended in Monaco when he collided with Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya in the tunnel behind the safety car.

Monaco was also the first time this year that Schumacher had qualified off the front row but there was no danger of a recurrence of that on Saturday.

BAR's Takuma Sato and Renault's Jarno Trulli will start from second and third positions, and both were impressively quick off the start in Monaco. Schumacher, however, said he had nothing to fear.

"If you take away Monaco, we have been pretty good at the start," he said. "I believe that being on the right side of the grid I should be able to do a good start."