Schumacher scorches to pole position

Michael Schumacher maintained his perfect qualifying record at Indianapolis as he scorched to pole position for the United States Grand Prix today.

The German took top spot on the grid at the Motor Speedway for the third-successive year as he spearheaded another display of Ferrari’s massive superiority this season.

Schumacher finished 0.268 seconds ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello to score his sixth pole this season and the 49th of his glorious career.

Scotland’s David Coulthard outqualified McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Kimi Raikkonen for only the sixth time in 16 attempts this year to take third spot - his best slot since Monaco last May.

Juan Pablo Montoya, the only man to seriously challenge Schumacher in qualifying this year, had to settle for fourth place for Williams-BMW despite massive support from his fellow Colombians in the crowd.

Team-mate Ralf Schumacher posted the fifth-fastest time and will be joined on the third row of the grid by Raikkonen.

Eddie Irvine’s hopes of a top 10 place suffered a blow as he finished back in 13th spot for Jaguar Racing having been third-fastest in final practice.

Fellow Brit Jenson Button was 14th for Renault while Allan McNish was 16th-fastest for Toyota in his first-ever battle for grid positions on the track.

Montoya set down the early marker with a time of one minute 11.414 seconds while Schumacher, who had dominated all four practice sessions, aborted his first qualifying run.

But Schumacher was soon back on the famous old track and this time he made his extra speed tell as he scorched round to carve over 0.6 secs off the time set by Montoya and take top spot.

Barrichello completed Ferrari’s latest show of dominance as he returned to the circuit to post the second-fastest time, just over 0.2 secs adrift of the five-time world champion.

Schumacher, who triumphed at Indianapolis when F1 returned to the United States in 2000, is perfectly poised to claim a second win having finished runner-up last year.

The 33-year-old has already won a record 10 races this year while romping to a hat-trick of titles for Ferrari and a fifth drivers’ crown overall.

Barrichello, meanwhile, needs just three points from tomorrow’s grand prix - the penultimate round of the 17-race season – to be certain of finishing runner-up to his team-mate in the drivers’ standings.

Ferrari's Manchester-born technical director Ross Brawn immediately promised that their drivers would be allowed to race tomorrow giving F1 a battle it desperately needs after a succession of processions.

“The guys will be allowed to race as long as they don’t do anything silly,” said Brawn, who has seen Schumacher and Barrichello finish one-two for the past three races and seven times in all this year.

“It is a fantastic feeling to be here because the atmosphere is great,” said Schumacher. “I got in the grass on the first run so I aborted it.

“We have a free situation tomorrow. If I have the opportunity I can win it and hope Rubens finishes second in the championships anyway so I am looking forward to it.”

Barrichello, who slammed into a concrete wall at 190mph in practice yesterday, said: “I am happy with second because I was playing catch-up.”

Coulthard, who won in Monaco when he started second on the grid, should be on hand to capitalise on any Ferrari slip-up after getting within 0.6 secs of the red cars to thwart Montoya’s huge fanbase by 0.001 secs.

“I am very happy with that but it was closer than it could have been,” said Coulthard, whose mechanics worked overtime to change his Mercedes engine after practice.