But, despite not topping a session all weekend prior to qualifying, Schumacher bounced back in style to record a lap of one minute 28.351seconds to take pole position by 0.635secs from Takuma Sato.

The BAR driver claimed the best-ever qualifying result for a Japanese driver in Formula One and will start from the front row for the first time tomorrow.

Renault’s Jarno Trulli, who won at Monaco, was third, just a whisker clear of fourth-placed Kimi Raikkonen, whose performance offers hope of a change in fortunes for McLaren.

BAR’s Jenson Button will start from fifth after his qualifying lap was almost a second slower than Schumacher while David Coulthard must start from the back.

Coulthard’s chances were hit by a mechanical problem which forced him to park his McLaren after setting the fourth quickest time in pre-qualifying.

The Scot pushed his car to the sidelines before jumping back in the cockpit as marshalls lifted the McLaren on to the back of a truck and drove back to the pits.

He opted not to use the spare car despite mechanics preparing it for him, and instead stood casually and watched on television screens when he was scheduled to be on track.

That means Coulthard will start from the back, and may even begin the race from the pit lane depending on whether McLaren take the opportunity to tinker with the car.

Trulli was the first of the top runners to hit the track and the Monaco Grand Prix winner set an early benchmark.

The first challenger to that effort should have been Giancarlo Fisichella, but the Italian suffered a problem with his Sauber and never made it on to the circuit.

He will start from the back of the grid, a likely situation anyway considering the 10-point penalty he suffered for an engine change yesterday.

Alonso briefly joined Trulli on the provisional front row. But he dropped back to third when McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen proved his practice pace was no fluke by lapping just 0.002secs slower than than Trulli, despite a disappointing first two sectors.

Button ran slightly wide on his fast lap, costing him a vital fraction of a second before Schumacher easily put his name at the top of the pile.

Schumacher was pleased to be back in competition after his Monaco troubles, saying: ``To have just a couple of days available and be back in racing rather than testing let me forget about what happened - I can't change it anyway.''

Sato added: “I am so delighted to be here. After having my best grid position in Barcelona I really wanted to be on the front row of the grid and I am really happy today.

“We achieved what we wanted and tomorrow we are really looking forward to going side by side with a really good competitor [Schumacher].”