Montoya's warning to Schumacher

Juan Pablo Montoya blazed his way to the fastest time in first qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix in Monza Friday - then warned title rival Michael Schumacher he can go even faster.

The Colombian, who has whittled Schumacher’s championship advantage down to a slender point with three races left, finished over half-a-second ahead of the German’s Ferrari.

Montoya also had the edge in his Williams-BMW over the third man in the battle for the drivers’ crown with McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, one point further adrift, more than 1.3 seconds slower in fifth spot.

“We will perform better tomorrow when the track will be cleaner,” said Montoya, who will take the lead in the championship for the first time ever if he repeats his 2001 victory at Monza on Sunday.

“I am confident for the rest of the weekend.

“It is obviously ideal to be ahead of Michael and Kimi, but what counts is tomorrow. We should be pretty competitive.”

Montoya finished the session just over 0.1 secs ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the other Ferrari with Schumacher, who had narrowly escaped a 150mph shunt during practice, some distance further back in third.

“The fact that, once again, I was first out on the track was certainly not an advantage even though that has been the situation so often this season,” said Schumacher, who has not won for five races.

“But I am happy with the time I set, it was a good lap. We have a good base on which to work for the next couple of days.”

Montoya’s team-mate Ralf Schumacher had a nightmare return to the track for the first time since he barrel-rolled out of the test at Monza last week.

The German, given the green light to race last night, had his qualifying lap disqualified after he cut a chicane and he will be second out tomorrow saved from acting as the track cleaner with Minardi’s Jos Verstappen not taking to the track because of a technical problem.