Schumacher number one again

Michael Schumacher finally deposed the ‘King of Qualifying’ from his throne to secure his first pole position for three months for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix.

Juan Pablo Montoya’s sensational run of five successive poles in his Williams-BMW came to a bitter end at a revamped Hockenheim as the scintillating Schumacher gave his adoring fans exactly what they had craved.

Just six days after claiming his record-equalling fifth world championship, the 33-year-old continued his domination of the sport with a stunning lap time of one minute 14.389 seconds to take the 62nd pole of his career.

It was also Schumacher's first-ever pole at Hockenheim, now reduced in length from 6.815km to 4.489km, pipping his brother Ralf in the other Williams-BMW into second by 0.181secs.

Rubens Barrichello improved with every run, but his time of 1:14.693 was only good enough for third, with Montoya having to settle for fourth.

On Montoya’s first run, the Colombian ran wide onto the gravel at the Mobil 1 Kurve on entry to the Motodrome complex, but instead of aborting he carried on to ensure he at least posted a qualifying time should there be a problem.

The 26-year-old, though, appeared fazed for the rest of the session as he failed to produce anything like the form which had seen him produce his recent pole blitz.

Kimi Raikkonen in the McLaren and the Jordan of Giancarlo Fisichella completed the top six, with the latter clearly having recovered from his horrifying shunt in final practice for the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours last weekend.

Schumacher, though, is on course to achieve another record for the number of race wins in a season – nine achieved by Nigel Mansell in 1992 and himself in 1995, 2000 and 2001.

With eight to date this season, but with just one race win at Hockenheim - that now seven years ago – his intentions are as strong as ever.

For David Coulthard, ninth place in his McLaren represents his worst qualifying performance of the season, while Jenson Button was 13th in the Renault, with Eddie Irvine and Allan McNish 16th and 17th respectively in the Jaguar and Toyota.

The Arrows’ of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi staved off any threat of the team being banned from the sport by both qualifying for the race.

Arrows had raised suspicion at Magny Cours last week when both drivers were within the 107% cut-off limit after the first two sectors, only to then dramatically slow in the final sector.

An observer for the sport’s governing body, the FIA, launched an investigation and as a result the team were being scrutinised closely, but Frentzen finished 15th and Bernoldi 18th.

For the fourth time this season, Alex Yoong failed to qualify his Minardi, again finishing outside the 107% time limit.