Schumacher has to make do with second

The double champion set his best time of 1.25.223 on his first run and never improved on it.

'The first run was a good one so there was no point in doing another safe run. I had to try and improve it.

'There are certain limits to the car and I exceeded them. As the lap times got slower I came into save a lap later.

'It was a good thing I did because on my last run because the first lap wasn't good and I had to abort it, and then I tried a second lap which was quite good until the second last corner.

'Finally I lost the back end trying more than the car was capable of doing.'

As he struggled to find a compromise in his car setting on a hot and windy day, he always led the McLarens after the first two sectors only to lose it in the final lap.

'I think there was something left but probably not enough for pole position.'

Such is the competition between Schumacher and Hakkinen that they even had a brief race in the pit lane mid-way through the session.

'You are allowed to go 80kph. There is no rule against overtaking if the other guy is having problems and Mika was driving so slowly I thought he did.

'Plus, there was not much time in qualifying and I wanted to make sure I was out,' said Schumacher.