Timothy Collings' Qualifying Report - Hungarian GP

Michael Schumacher's bid to regain command of the world championship received a valuable boost on Saturday when he bagged pole position for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Schumacher, whose title hopes have been hit by four non-finishes in the last five races -- first lap crashes in his last two outings -- joined the great Juan-Manuel Fangio in the record books with his qualifying performance.

The Ferrari driver matched Fangio by notching the 28th pole of his career in searing heat at the Hungaroring. Only four drivers have achieved more -- Ayrton Senna with 65, Jim Clark and Alain Prost 33 and Nigel Mansell 32.

It was also the fifth time the German had secured the prime grid position this season.

Schumacher's fastest lap of 1:17.514 set midway through the session allowed him to sit back and watch McLaren rivals David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen try to beat him. The duo are breathing down Schumacher's neck in the championship, just two points behind.

Both failed. Coulthard emerged second best with 1:17.886 with reigning champion Hakkinen third in 1:17.922.

Both Schumacher and front row rival Coulthard will be keen to pull away from the start-line quickest and avoid any reason to rekindle the recent war of words between them.

Criticised

Schumacher has been criticised by Coulthard for his aggressive swerving starts but the sport's governing body made it clear no rules were broken.

So last time out in Germany Coulthard retaliated with a swerving getaway. It resulted in Schumacher's first corner collision with Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton and retirement.

Schumacher said he had been practising starts -- he spent Wednesday at Ferrari's Fiorano test track doing so in readiness for this race -- and had found an improvement.

"I just hope I can make a good start this time," he said with a smile when asked what to expect.

"I am obviously delighted to be on pole, too, as it is the basis for a good race. We were very confident coming here and hope we feel the same going away tomorrow.

"But first we have to finish and, if we can do that, we are in a good position to win."

Coulthard said he was impressed with Schumacher's speed and agreed that he was untouchable in qualifying.

"But I am confident that my car is competitive with plenty of fuel on board. The race result is what really matters," he said.

Hakkinen went out after only 13 minutes of the one-hour session ahead of the other front-runners.

He said: "I did that because we had made some radical changes to the set-up and I wanted to evaluate them. To be honest, I wasn't too happy with the car and I haven't been all through the weekend. But I hope we are reasonable in race trim."

Asked about the start, he said: "The first corner should be fun, I think."

Schumacher's younger brother Ralf was fourth best in his Williams, followed by Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello -- winner at Hockenheim two week ago -- and Heinz-Harald Frentzen in a Jordan.