Montoya claims pole

Juan Pablo Montoya clinched his first pole position of the season for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix – thanks to McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen requiring another engine change.

Montoya will be joined on the front row of the grid by championship leader Fernando Alonso as the Renault star finished 0.265 of a second down on the Colombian’s flying-lap time of one minute 21.054 seconds.

Montoya, though, was beaten by an on-song Raikkonen as the Finn clocked under 81 seconds for the 3.6-mile circuit, finishing with 1:20.878, but he will ultimately start from 11th at Monza due to a 10-place grid penalty.

Another storming performance is required from the 25-year-old if he is to clinch a podium at least, as he did in the French and British grands prix earlier this year when he suffered engine problems in practice on both occasions.

After the engine blew at Magny Cours on the Friday, eight days later an oil pump failure at Silverstone led to 10-place demotions and grid positions of 13th and 12th respectively, from which he fought his way through the field to claim and second and third places.

Alonso, who currently holds a 24-point lead on Raikkonen, again has a clear race advantage due to the Mercedes engine on the McLaren sustaining an inlet valve problem after practice earlier today.

The second row is an all-BAR affair, with Jenson Button ahead of Takuma Sato, despite the Briton left bitterly complaining about his car after practice yesterday, describing it as “not nice to drive.”

The 25-year-old Briton faired little better in the two runs this morning, but managed to hook it up on his qualifying lap to finish under half a second down on Raikkonen’s time, with Sato a further tenth of a second adrift.

With Williams’ Nick Heidfeld ruled out of the race after complaining of headaches following practice yesterday, believed to be as a result of a crash in testing at this track eight days ago, his replacement, team test driver Antonio Pizzonia, was first out.

The 24-year-old Brazilian, in his first grand prix since Monza last year when he served as substitute for Ralf Schumacher who had previously been involved in a horror shunt in the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, finished a lowly 16th.

Team-mate Mark Webber, second on track, underlined Pizzonia’s lack of pace as he was over seven tenths quicker, although the Australian was then quickly put in the shade by Michael Schumacher.

The seven-times world champion, fourth out following his early retirement in Turkey a fortnight ago, set a time of 1:21.721 – his fastest of the weekend - that was never headed until Sato, with the Japanese 12th on track.

Schumacher, whose unbroken five-year reign will come to an end tomorrow if he fails to beat Alonso, as he trails the Spaniard by 40 points with five races remaining, eventually wound up sixth, with Jarno Trulli directly in front of him on the third row.

The 36-year-old German will be immediately followed off the grid by team-mate Rubens Barrichello, the second Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella, brother Ralf in the Toyota, and then David Coulthard for Red Bull Racing as the Scot set a time of 1:22.304.