Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya will start Sunday's Canadian Formula One Grand Prix on pole position ahead of Ferrari's world champion Michael Schumacher. The Williams driver roared around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in one minute 12.836 seconds for his third pole of the season, his second in a row and the sixth of the Colombian's career.
Schumacher, chasing Ferrari's 150th win in Canada and his own sixth in eight races this year, has lined up on pole position in Canada six times since 1994 but lost out to Montoya by 0.182 of a second. Montoya, leading pretender to Schumacher's crown, ended the German's hopes of a fourth Montreal pole in succession with his blistering lap set half an hour into Saturday's hour-long qualifying session.
The time was nearly three seconds faster than Schumacher's 2001 pole, although the island circuit has been modified and slightly shortened since then. The Colombian and German rivals, who clashed on track early in the season, will line up alongside each other on the front row for the third time this year.
Schumacher leads Montoya and brother Ralf in the championship by 33 points and his record-equalling fifth title has been seen as a foregone conclusion given Ferrari's early season dominance. Ferrari and Williams also filled the second row, with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello starting third and Montoya's team mate Ralf Schumacher - the winner in Canada last season - in fourth place.
Finn Kimi Raikkonen was fifth for McLaren while Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, in a Jordan, completed the third row. Germany's Nick Heidfeld was seventh for Sauber, ahead of Monaco winner David Coulthard's McLaren.
Japanese rookie Takuma Sato had a gruelling afternoon after his Jordan's Honda engine blew spectacularly with 27 minutes remaining, flames leaping out of the rear of the car and a cloud of smoke shrouding the track. Sato, applauded by the crowd, then embarked on an adventurous trip back to the pits - scrambling around in the lakeside bushes then jogging along a path to a waiting scooter before a final run through the paddock. The rookie ended up 15th fastest.
Italian Jarno Trulli clouted the wall with the rear of his Renault, damaging the right rear suspension while Canadian Jacques Villeneuve parked his BAR on the track after claiming the ninth best time.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
