Schumacher Clinches Third Straight Indy Pole

World Champion Michael Schumacher cruised to his sixth pole position of the year in qualifying for Sunday's United States Grand Prix as Ferrari claimed their fifth front-row lock out of the season.

The dominant German broke last year's pole position record with a lap of 1:10.790 to finish 0.268 seconds ahead of Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello.

Briton David Coulthard will start third after jumping Williams rival Juan Pablo Montoya in the final seconds of the session. Montoya, who is bidding to become the first man in history to win on the oval and road courses at Indianapolis, was fourth, but he finished more than half a second off Schumacher's pace.

German Ralf Schumacher and Finn Kimi Raikkonen will start alongside each other on the third row after qualifying fifth and sixth, while Canadian Jacques Villeneuve put in an impressive performance to secure seventh for British American Racing.

Italians Jarno Trulli, of Renault, and Giancarlo Fisichella, of Jordan, finished eighth and ninth with German Nick Heidfeld tenth for Sauber, just ahead of German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who put in a promising effort to claim 11th after replacing Brazilian Felipe Massa on Friday.

Ulsterman Eddie Irvine's impressive weekend form deserted him and he ended up 13th on the grid.

Twenty minutes had passed before any of the teams ventured out on track as temperatures steadily rose and it was Canadian Jacques Villeneuve who led the charge.

Montoya set the early benchmark with a lap of 1:11.414 but that was much slower than Schumacher's fastest practice lap so it was clear there was more to come. The Ferrari pair remained in the garages until half the session was over, when Barrichello put his scarlet car up to second and Schumacher aborted his first flying lap.

The German moved to the top of the grid on his second attempt when he set a lap of one 1:10.790 and Barrichello made it a Ferrari one-two almost immediately when he went 0.4 seconds faster than Montoya.

Behind those three, the McLaren pair of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen were fourth and fifth with the second Williams ensuring the top three teams completed the top three rows.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:10.790 213.183 km/h 11 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:11.058 + 0.268 12 3. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:11.413 + 0.623 12 4. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:11.414 + 0.624 11 5. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:11.587 + 0.797 12 6. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:11.633 + 0.843 11 7. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:11.738 + 0.948 12 8. Trulli Renault (M) 1:11.888 + 1.098 12 9. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:11.902 + 1.112 12 10. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:11.953 + 1.163 12 11. Frentzen Sauber Petronas (B) 1:12.083 + 1.293 11 12. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:12.161 + 1.371 11 13. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:12.282 + 1.492 11 14. Button Renault (M) 1:12.401 + 1.611 12 15. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:12.647 + 1.857 12 16. McNish Toyota (M) 1:12.723 + 1.933 12 17. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:12.739 + 1.949 12 18. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:13.128 + 2.338 11 19. Salo Toyota (M) 1:13.213 + 2.423 9 20. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:13.809 + 3.019 5 All Timing Unofficial