Montoya secures third pole in a row at Nurburgring

BMW WilliamsF1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya took his third pole position in a row at the Nürburgring after an excellent performance by the BMW WilliamsF1 team.

Juan Pablo set a 1:29.975 to take the top time, just nine thousandths quicker than team-mate Ralf Schumacher. Both BMW WilliamsF1 driver were able to quickly gain control during qualifying. They were helped by the fact that the weather remained fine which favoured the Michelin tyres..

At the start of qualifying all the drivers were waiting in the pits, among them Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya. But after twelve minutes Alex Yoong would be the first man out on the track. It's a familiar scene that a Minardi driver is the one who sweeps the circuit. Yoong would set a time of 1m:35.804. His time is even slower than the one he set this morning in practice.

Many drivers would now take to the track including Raikkonen, McNish, Bernoldi, and Villeneuve out on the track as this qualifying really seems to get underway. Villeneuve would go fastest by 2.082 secs. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen would set the early pace with a lap of 1m:31.069. Toyota's Allan McNish would go second with a 1m:32.175.

Both WilliamsF1 drivers would take to the circuit, but Montoya would make a mistake, and set a poor time at T1. They were joined by David Coulthard. Coulthard would finish the lap in second, and Montoya 4th. McNish's team-mate Salo would go third 0.8 ahead of McNish. But it would be Ralf Schumacher who would go fastest by 0.509 secs., with a lap of 1m:30.560.

So after twenty eight minutes the order was Ralf Schumacher, Raikkonen, Button, Coulthard, Salo, McNish, Heidfeld, Montoya, Massa, Panis, Sato, Fisichella, Irvine, Webber, Frentzen, Villeneuve, de la Rosa, Bernoldi, Yoong. With the majority of cars having sets times both Ferraris would now take to the track to set a first time. Montoya had some problems and could only do a 1m:32,460, only good enough for eighth position.

Barrichello would go second with a 1m:30.639. Michael Schumacher would go back to the pits as he appeared to be unhappy with his car. Michael would use the spare car, there was some sort of problem with the regular chassis. Raikkonen would not improve on his second flying lap remaining in 3rd. Michael Schumacher would be way behind on his first flying lap been one second behind at T1. He would finish seventh with a lap of 1m:31.422. Montoya was on another quick lap but would lose time in the middle section and finish third, 0.218 behind Ralf.

With twenty minutes left the order was Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello, Montoya, Raikkonen, Button, Coulthard, Salo, Michael Schumacher, Trulli, Heidfeld, Massa, McNish, Panis, Frentzen, Sato, Villeneuve, Fisichella, de la Rosa, Irvine, Webber, Bernoldi, Yoong. Ralf would go out for another flying laps and would improve, setting a 1m:29.915. Barrichello would improve his time but was still second with a 1m:30.428 lap.

Michael would come out for a third attempt joined by Montoya. For Michael his lap would see him 0.326 secs behind at T1. But with a lap of 1m:30.2 he would move up into second. But Montoya would go fastest by 0.009 secs, with a lap of 1m:29.906. So we had an all WilliamsF1 front row, followed by Ferrari second row and an all McLaren third row. But would it stay that way.

A very quick lap by David Coulthard would bring him up into 5th, ahead of Raikkonen. We had ten minutes left in the session with the order been Montoya (1:29.906), Ralf Schumacher (0.0), Michael Schumacher (0.3), Barrichello (0.5), Coulthard (0.6), Raikkonen (0.6). For Jordan driver Fisichella he was down in 18th, which was very disappointing. Now all the drivers would prepare for their final runs in the last few minutes.

Ralf would begin his last attempt to secure pole. He would be behind after sector one, finishing still in second. Both Montoya and Michael would come out for their final attempts. Sauber's Nick Heidfeld would put in a good lap to move into ninth. Montoya would make a mistake on his final attempt so now it came down to Michael Schumacher beating him for pole. Michael was ahead at T2 by 0.112 secs but he would only come in third leaving Montoya on pole.