Schumacher Storms to Pole at the Malaysian GP

World Champion Michael Schumacher proved the doubters wrong when he mastered the heat of Sepang to scorch to his second pole position of the season in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday.

Schumacher, who dominated the season-opening Australian Grand Prix but had been tipped to lose his stranglehold at Sepang, scorched to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1:33.074.

The German driver finished 0.641 seconds ahead of his closest challenger, Australian Mark Webber, who put in a stunning lap to claim his first ever front row grid start for Jaguar.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who became the youngest ever pole sitter at Sepang last year, had looked like producing a challenge after topping the first qualifying but spun out before completing his lap.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello claimed third place for Ferrari, but finished 0.682 seconds behind Schumacher and will start alongside Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams on the second row. Raikkonen, who won last year's Malaysian Grand Prix but was forced to retire from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago, claimed the fifth fastest time of the day for McLaren-Mercedes.

Briton Jenson Button was sixth in his BAR-Honda after teammate Takuma Sato had spun at turn 14 earlier and caused the session to be stopped. Sato will start from the back row with Alonso. German Ralf Schumacher, who triumphed in Malaysia two years ago for Williams-BMW, finished the session in seventh place just ahead of Italian Renault driver Jarno Trulli.

Scot David Coulthard finished ninth to put both struggling McLarens in the top ten and Brazilian Cristiano da Matta completed the top ten with a good performance for Toyota. Italian Giorgio Pantano was out first in the session after failing to leave the Jordan garage in time for his first flying lap and he set the slowest time in the second session.

Montoya was the first of the top contenders to go out on track and he set a time that was good enough to stay at the top when his Williams-BMW teammate Ralf Schumacher had his run but neither looked close to what would be a top time.

Button, too, was unable to match Montoya's pace as he finished 0.167 seconds behind but just in front of Ralf Schumacher, and the Colombian stayed in front until Barrichello put his Ferrari ahead with five cars still to run.

Webber, the next man out, looked set to tuck in behind Barrichello in second place but he pulled out an impressive time in the final sector to leapfrog the Ferrari into top spot.

But Michael Schumacher was immediately ahead of Webber and bettered every sector as he carried his speed through the rest of the lap, with a top speed of 309.9kmh on the straight, to finish more than half a second ahead.

Pos Driver Team T1 T2 Time 1. (17) M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 24.064 54.671 1:33.074 2. (16) Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 24.393 55.243 1:33.715 + 0.641 3. (15) Barrichello Ferrari (B) 24.217 55.098 1:33.756 + 0.682 4. (10) Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 24.333 55.557 1:34.054 + 0.980 5. (18) Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 24.409 55.764 1:34.164 + 1.090 6. (13) Button BAR-Honda (M) 24.443 55.511 1:34.221 + 1.147 7. (12) R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 24.240 55.546 1:34.235 + 1.161 8. (19) Trulli Renault (M) 24.528 55.791 1:34.413 + 1.339 9. (14) Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 24.428 55.855 1:34.602 + 1.528 10. (5) da Matta Toyota (M) 24.626 56.042 1:34.917 + 1.843 11. (8) Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 24.432 55.987 1:35.039 + 1.965 12. (11) Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 24.473 55.943 1:35.061 + 1.987 13. (6) Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 24.698 56.254 1:35.158 + 2.084 14. (7) Panis Toyota (M) 24.654 56.596 1:35.617 + 2.543 15. (4) Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 24.854 56.817 1:36.569 + 3.495 16. (3) Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 25.045 57.907 1:38.577 + 5.503 17. (2) Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 25.320 58.322 1:39.272 + 6.198 18. (1) Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 25.556 58.544 1:39.902 + 6.828 19. (20) Alonso Renault (M) 24.247 55.261 No Time 20. (9) Sato BAR-Honda (M) 24.504 55.787 No Time All Timing Unofficial