Montoya sneaks pole position
Colombia’s Juan Pablo Montoya scorched to a hat-trick of pole positions to spearhead an unexpected Williams-BMW one-two at the European Grand Prix in Germany today.
Montoya took top spot on the reconfigured Nurburgring by just 0.009 seconds from Ralf Schumacher as the team-mates took advantage of world champion Michael Schumacher’s technical problems.
Schumacher had to settle for third place on the grid for tomorrow’s ninth round of the 17-race season after being forced to switch cars when his Ferrari developed a fault on his first qualifying run.
Brazil’s Rubens Barrichello was fourth fastest in the other Ferrari just ahead of David Coulthard whose fellow McLaren-Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen finished in sixth spot.
Jenson Button shrugged off the speculation surrounding his Formula One future to post the eighth fastest time, one place behind Renault team-mate Jarno Trulli, while Allan McNish was 13th for Toyota with Ireland's Eddie Irvine 17th for Jaguar Racing.
