Schumacher Storms to First Season Pole

Schumacher, who won here from pole last year, has been boosted by improved pace from his Ferrari and, with a presumably light-fuelled machine, he claimed the top spot from Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.897 seconds.

Montoya's teammate Raikkonen had set the pace in the morning practice sessions, topping both as he completed a perfect pre-race preparation, but he suffered for running early in the session.

Despite the disadvantage, the Finn, who is second in the championship, managed a time of 1:20.891, which was good enough for fourth place behind the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.

Raikkonen has conceded his championship hopes are all but over but he remains determined to win every race he can just in case title race leader Alonso is hit by bad luck in any of the remaining seven events.

And Alonso, who is leading the World Championship by 36 points from Raikkonen and ran last having won the last race in Germany, almost made a mistake in his lap when he put a wheel on the grass at the final turn.

He finished with a time 1.259 seconds behind Schumacher's to put himself in sixth place behind the second Toyota of Ralf Schumacher as Rubens Barrichello secured seventh in the second Ferrari.

Jenson Button finished eighth fastest for BAR-Honda with Giancarlo Fisichella ninth in the second Renault and Takuma Sato, in the second BAR-Honda, completing the top ten.

Raikkonen was out first, having retired from the last race in Germany, but despite the disadvantage of a cooler and dirtier track he still managed a stunning time of 1:20.891.

Mark Webber was out next in his Williams but he was more than 2.5 seconds slower than the lead McLaren then Robert Doornbos was more than 4.5 seconds slower in the Minardi and Jordan driver Tiago Monteiro chose not to even complete a lap.

Narain Karthikeyan went four tenths quicker than Doornbos then Jacques Villeneuve went second before Trulli shot to the top, to the delight of the Toyota garage, with a time just 0.052 seconds quicker than Raikkonen.

Sato then went quickest in the first sector but lost out significantly in the second and had to settle for third, almost one second behind Raikkonen, then Barrichello was three tenths down on Trulli as he replaced Sato in third.

Ralf Schumacher could do no better than third on his run, pushing Barrichello down the order as he finished 0.125 seconds slower than his teammate who remained on provisional pole.

Michael Schumacher then went fastest with an astonishing time that eclipsed Trulli's by almost a second, his car clearly fuelled light in a bid to make the most of starting near the front and nobody could beat him.

Pos      Driver        Team                   Time
 1. (16) M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:19.882
 2. (19) Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:20.779 + 0.897
 3.  (7) Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:20.839 + 0.957
 4.  (1) Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:20.891 + 1.009
 5. (15) R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:20.964 + 1.082
 6. (20) Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:21.141 + 1.259
 7. (11) Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:21.158 + 1.276
 8. (18) Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:21.302 + 1.420
 9. (17) Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:21.333 + 1.451
10.  (9) Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:21.787 + 1.905
11. (12) Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:21.937 + 2.055
12. (10) Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:22.086 + 2.204
13. (14) Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:22.279 + 2.397
14. (13) Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:22.565 + 2.683
15.  (6) Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:22.866 + 2.984
16.  (2) Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:23.495 + 3.613
17.  (8) Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:24.443 + 4.561
18.  (5) Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:25.057 + 5.175
19.  (3) Doornbos      Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:25.484 + 5.602
20.  (4) Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  No Time

All Timing Unofficial