Schumacher Confident of Second Indy Win

World Champion Michael Schumacher was confident of scoring his ninth win of the season at the United States Grand Prix after clinching pole position on Saturday at the historic Indianapolis circuit.

It was the 42nd pole of his career and his 10th in 16 races this season. The German was joined on the front row of the grid by McLaren's Mika Hakkinen, who lapped 0.237 seconds slower.

Schumacher, who won at Indianapolis last year in the return of Formula One to the United States after nine years, was confident of repeating the result on Sunday.

"As far as qualifying is concerned I couldn't have gone any better than this," said Schumacher, who didn't go out in the final moments of the session. "You know when you have reached the maximum, but I am pretty confident for the race. The car has been going pretty well all weekend and we have continually improved it so things are looking positive.

"I hope do the same as last year and win the race. We have lots of supporters in the US and obviously with all that happened we would like to put a smile back on faces of people and put on a good show - and do that by winning the race."

Schumacher, who clinched his fourth title earlier this year in Hungary, finished more than six tenths of a second ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello, who posted the fifth quickest time of the day.