NewsOnF1 - 2002 British GP - Qualifying Report

Juan Pablo Montoya grabs his 4th Pole position in a row (and his 5th this season) ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher. Ralf Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard make the top 6.

Following a Ferrari dominance during all the practice sessions and for most of the qualifying session, Juan Pablo Montoya drove a stunning lap in the dying minutes of the session to take Pole position by just 0.034 seconds from Rubens Barrichello. Michael Schumacher wasn't far behind only 0.01 seconds behind Barrichello.

The action started 15 minutes into the session with Bernoldi going out on the track, a number of drivers followed. 6 minutes later Michael Schumacher appeared and grabbed provisional pole over a second faster than anyone else.
Just before the halfway mark through the session and both Giancarlo Fisichella and Jenson Button suffered car failures forcing them to stop on the track and ruining the laps of a number of other drivers.
Montoya's first run was good for second place but over a second slower than Michael. Ralf Schumacher then took second away from Montoya and appeared the stronger of the pair.
Rubens Barrichello who had to abort his run after Button's engine failure managed to get closest to Michael and take second place. Meanwhile at the back Alex Yoong was struggling to qualify while Pedro de la Rosa had serious problems and hadn't completed a timed lap.
With less than 20 minutes to go, Michael Schumacher went out on his second run and managed to improve his time by a further half a second. Minutes later though Barrichello got the better of Michael and grabbed provisional pole by just 0.010 seconds.
Ralf Schumacher on his second run gave signs that the Williams could match the Ferrari setting a time just 0.3 seconds off Rubens but Montoya's second run wasn't too encouraging as he was over 0.8 seconds off Pole time.

With only a few minutes remaining it looked set to be a Ferrari front row. But on the final run Juan Pablo Montoya managed to put a stunning lap and set a time that was 0.034 seconds faster than that of Barrichello. Rubens Barrichello, Michael and Ralf Schumacher failed to improve.
Behind the top 4, the 2 McLarens took 5th and 6th but were over a second off the pace while Jarno Trulli continues his good form taking 7th just 0.2 seconds behind Coulthard.
Mika Salo in the Toyota was a surprise 8th after struggling with his car in practice and with his stomach infection yesterday. Jacques Villeneuve managed 9th with Nick Heidfeld in 10th.

Pedro de la Rosa just managed to qualify as he went out in the spare car in the final minutes of the session while Alex Yoong used up all his runs trying to set a time inside the 107% mark but failed to do achieve that. His team-mate Mark Webber managed to qualify in 20th place and over 2.5 seconds ahead. This track was always going to be difficult for the Malaysian driver.

The midfield is as expected too close. Mika Salo in 8th is just 0.856 seconds ahead of Eddie Irvine in 19th.

In the battle of the team-mate, Nick Heidfeld just managed to get the better of his team-mate Felipe Massa by just 0.004 seconds. Rubens Barrichello managed to out-qualify his team-mate Michael Schumacher by 0.010 seconds while Jacques Villeneuve managed to out-qualify his team-mate Olivier Panis by only 0.144 seconds.
At the other side of the scale, Mark Webber continues his stunning form out-qualifying his team-mate by a massive 2.504 seconds while Eddie Irvine managed to out-qualify his team-mate Pedro de la Rosa by 1.571 seconds although de la Rosa had just a single run in the spare car. Jarno Trulli appears to be constantly getting the better of his team-mate Jenson Button out-qualifying him by 0.731 seconds however Button also had problems with his car and had to qualify in the spare.

Mika Salo (8th) had his best qualifying position this season while Juan Pablo Montoya (1st), Kimi Raikkonen (5th - his 7th this season!), Jacques Villeneuve (9th) and Takuma Sato (14th) equalled their best position.
Michael Schumacher (3rd), Ralf Schumacher (4th), Pedro de la Rosa (21st) and Alex Yoong (22nd) all equalled their worst qualifying positions this season.

So Juan Pablo Montoya secured his 4th Pole in a row, for the last 3 races he retired, will he be able to reverse that trend tomorrow and will his tyres be consistent enough to match the Ferraris ?

Click here for a more detailed analysis including the Also Ran award by the Quali-flyer
Click here of the Qualifying table for the drivers this season

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First Friday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Second Friday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
First Saturday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
Second Saturday Practice	Results	Report	Notes	Results
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