Schumacher Leads All-Ferrari Front Row - Spain

World Champion Michael Schumacher claimed his third pole position in five races when he eased his new Ferrari to a comfortable top spot in Saturday's final qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Schumacher, who will give the new F2003-GA machine its race debut in Barcelona on Sunday, was the last man out after topping the times on Friday and he never looked like being beaten.

His record at the Spanish track - four wins and never a finish outside the points - looks set to be continued after he claimed his fourth consecutive pole position at the track.

Schumacher's teammate Rubens Barrichello ensured the new machine secured a front-row lock-out in its first qualifying session when he set a time of 1:18.020 to leave the scarlet Scuderia cheering again. But the performance of the Ferrari pair wiped the smile of local boy Fernando Alonso, and the thousands of fans around the Circuit de Catalunya, as they both knocked him off provisional pole and down to third.

His Italian Renault teammate Jarno Trulli will start alongside Alonso on the second row after qualifying fourth, with Briton Jenson Button fifth for BAR Honda on a time of 1:18.704 seconds.

Frenchman Olivier Panis, of Toyota, finished sixth with German Ralf Schumacher seventh for Williams-BMW, Scot David Coulthard eighth for McLaren-Mercedes, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya ninth in the second Williams and German Heinz-Harald Frentzen completed the top ten in the Sauber.

Briton Justin Wilson, who qualified last on Friday, was the first man out on track and he set a benchmark time of 1:22.104 seconds which his Minardi teammate Jos Verstappen failed to beat.

Ralf Firman, out third, claimed the top spot comfortably for Jordan but he was soon beaten by the next driver on track, Nick Heidfeld, of Sauber, who was then in turn beaten by his teammate Frentzen.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella was out next after his Jordan team fixed two engine failures in the minutes before his one-lap qualifying effort and he only managed a time of 1:20.976, which dropped him behind Firman for the first time.

Montoya, who crashed out of the morning practice session, continued to struggle and although he rose to the top of the times he was only five hundredths of a second ahead of previous leader Frentzen. Under-fire Antonio Pizzonia finished almost a second slower than Montoya with a performance that failed to inspire his Jaguar team's confidence ahead of what could be a crucial race for him this weekend.

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, another man under pressure from his on-song teammate Jenson Button, was five tenths of a second off Montoya's time but Williams driver Schumacher shot to the top when he went out next. The crowd erupted as Alonso drove out the pits and he gave them even more reason to cheer at the end of his lap after he tore seven tenths of a second off Schumacher's fastest time to go top.

Coulthard was the next man out and he finished eight tenths of a second slower than Alonso but that still put him third behind Schumacher's Williams-BMW â€" but his teammate Kimi Raikkonen suffered even worse fate.

World Championship leader Raikkonen lost control of his car and ran over the gravel trap after the first sector and decided to pull into the pits without setting a time to give his team the chance to work on his car overnight.

Australian Mark Webber failed to live up to his qualifying expectations â€" which have seen him start from third and fifth on the grid in the last two races â€" but he still beat Pizzonia by seven tenths of a second to slot in behind Villeneuve.

Panis set an impressive time to claim second, half a second behind Alonso, and Button, on track next, then bumped him down and finished just less than a second faster than teammate Villeneuve. Brazilian Cristiano da Matta failed to come up to the level of his teammate with a time that was almost one and a half seconds slower than pole with only the two Ferraris and Trulli's Renault left to run.

Pos Driver Team T1 T2 Time 1. (20) M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 22.486 53.469 1:17.762 2. (18) Barrichello Ferrari (B) 22.455 53.604 1:18.020 + 0.258 3. (11) Alonso Renault (M) 22.788 53.855 1:18.233 + 0.471 4. (19) Trulli Renault (M) 22.956 54.264 1:18.615 + 0.853 5. (16) Button BAR Honda (B) 22.818 54.084 1:18.704 + 0.942 6. (15) Panis Toyota (M) 22.888 53.996 1:18.811 + 1.049 7. (10) R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 23.097 54.428 1:19.006 + 1.244 8. (12) Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 23.154 54.483 1:19.128 + 1.366 9. (7) Montoya Williams BMW (M) 23.157 54.680 1:19.377 + 1.615 10. (5) Frentzen Sauber Petronas (B) 23.107 54.710 1:19.427 + 1.665 11. (9) Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 23.299 54.822 1:19.563 + 1.801 12. (14) Webber Jaguar Cosworth (M) 23.324 54.860 1:19.615 + 1.853 13. (17) da Matta Toyota (M) 22.981 54.542 1:19.623 + 1.861 14. (4) Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 23.127 54.927 1:19.646 + 1.884 15. (3) Firman Jordan Ford (B) 23.395 55.119 1:20.215 + 2.453 16. (8) Pizzonia Jaguar Cosworth (M) 23.414 55.317 1:20.308 + 2.546 17. (6) Fisichella Jordan Ford (B) 23.708 55.838 1:20.976 + 3.214 18. (1) Wilson Minardi Cosworth (B) 23.878 56.559 1:22.104 + 4.342 19. (2) Verstappen Minardi Cosworth (B) 23.968 56.727 1:22.237 + 4.475 20. (13) Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 22.986 58.000 No Time Pos ----- Sector 1 ----- ----- Sector 2 ----- ----- Sector 3 ----- 1. Barrichello 22.455 M.Schumacher 30.983 M.Schumacher 24.293 2. M.Schumacher 22.486 Alonso 31.067 Trulli 24.351 3. Alonso 22.788 Panis 31.108 Alonso 24.378 4. Button 22.818 Barrichello 31.149 Barrichello 24.416 5. Panis 22.888 Button 31.266 R.Schumacher 24.578 6. Trulli 22.956 Trulli 31.308 Button 24.620 7. da Matta 22.981 Coulthard 31.329 Coulthard 24.645 8. Raikkonen 22.986 R.Schumacher 31.331 Montoya 24.697 9. R.Schumacher 23.097 Montoya 31.523 Frentzen 24.717 10. Frentzen 23.107 Villeneuve 31.523 Heidfeld 24.719 11. Heidfeld 23.127 Webber 31.536 Villeneuve 24.741 12. Coulthard 23.154 da Matta 31.561 Webber 24.755 13. Montoya 23.157 Frentzen 31.603 Panis 24.815 14. Villeneuve 23.299 Firman 31.724 Pizzonia 24.991 15. Webber 23.324 Heidfeld 31.800 da Matta 25.081 16. Firman 23.395 Pizzonia 31.903 Firman 25.096 17. Pizzonia 23.414 Fisichella 32.130 Fisichella 25.138 18. Fisichella 23.708 Wilson 32.681 Verstappen 25.510 19. Wilson 23.878 Verstappen 32.759 Wilson 25.545 20. Verstappen 23.968 Raikkonen 35.014 Top Speed: 325.4 (Barrichello, Ferrari) All timing unofficial