By Greig Murray
April 29 2002

Ferrari will start the 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix in 1st and 3rd places. It was a battle for pole with Michael Schumacher coming out on top ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya with a fantastic lap. Barrichello will be happy with 3rd after a mixed session.

As usual for the qualifying hour all drivers had a total of 12 timed laps to set their fastest possible time and take their order for the starting grid tomorrow. With Michael Schumacher taking pole position in each and every race held in Malaysia the German will be confident that he can repeat this success despite him yet to really show any true fast times in the 4 practice sessions leading up to the qualifying session.

Rubens Barrichello has been very confident this weekend, and after his pole in Australia the Brazilian must be hoping to take the no1 position ahead of his team mate once again. The tyres are the biggest factor this weekend in the heat of Malaysia, and although the Bridgestones seem to be working fine the same could be said about the Michelin rubber, so the gaps seen in Australia should be much less this time round, if present at all.

10 minutes into the session and Michael Schumacher is looking calm as he sits in the cockpit of his F2001 making sure everything is just right before he gets ready to take to the track for real. 25 minutes into the session and Schumacher takes to the track, so far the pole time has been set by the Williams of Ralf Schumacher and Michael will be keen to show that he has the pace to challenge that time and beat it. Rubens Barrichello is also out on track as Michael completes his opening lap with a time of 1m35.969 seconds and provisional pole, not the best lap he can deliver but good enough so far. Barrichello's opening run of the day was good enough for 3rd place with a lap of 1.36.124 traffic cost him a clear lap but he showed good pace in sector 3.

35 minutes of the session gone and the challenge is laid down to Ferrari by Juan Pablo Montoya who puts in a fast lap to take the provisional pole dropping Michael down to second and Rubens down to fourth, as for Friday's practice champions McLaren well they are struggling to match the pace at the top and are down in 5th and 6th well off the pace. With the challenge thrown down Michael Schumacher is back on track for his second run of the day and he rises to the challenge with a lap on that was on the ragged edge and he crosses the line with a 1.35.266 and back into P1 a brilliant lap by Michael. Barrichello's second run is soon to follow in Schumacher's wake but he was unable to improve and remains about 1 second behind his team mate.

8 minutes to go and Rubens is once again on track, hoping for a cleaner lap this time round and a big improvement. But once again no improvement from Rubens and in 4th place he remains with only 1 chance left to improve. Schumacher is also back out on track as he attempts to improve on his fastest lap, which will be tough to do even for him, and it proved to be so as he failed to improve on his time with traffic hampering him, although his lap would still have been good enough for P2.

As the clock ticks down on the session the track was filled with those hopeful of taking the pole away from Michael, but there was no chance of the pole being taken away from Schumacher who keeps his remarkable record in Malaysia intact, his fourth consecutive pole at this circuit after a good battle with Montoya. And finally as the session comes to an end Rubens Barrichello improves at the last moment and moves into 3rd place and splits the Williams on the grid. So a Ferrari 1-3 and the race looks set to be a battle between Schumacher and Montoya, and with Ralf and Rubens lining up on the same row they will be wanting no repeat of Australia!

1. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1'35"266 209.464 Km/h
2. MONTOYA Williams BMW 1'35"497 + 0'00"231
3. BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1'35"891 + 0'00"625
4. R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 1'36"028 + 0'00"762
5. RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes 1'36"468 + 0'01"202
6. COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes 1'36"477 + 0'01"211
7. HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1'37"199 + 0'01"933
8. BUTTON Renault 1'37"245 + 0'01"979
9. FISICHELLA Jordan Honda 1'37"536 + 0'02"270
10. SALO Toyota 1'37"694 + 0'02"428
11. FRENTZEN Arrows Cosworth 1'37"919 + 0'02"653
12. TRULLI Renault 1'37"920 + 0'02"654
13. VILLENEUVE BAR Honda 1'38"039 + 0'02"773
14. MASSA Sauber Petronas 1'38"057 + 0'02"791
15. SATO Jordan Honda 1'38"141 + 0'02"875
16. BERNOLDI Arrows Cosworth 1'38"284 + 0'03"018
17. DE LA ROSA Jaguar Cosworth 1'38"374 + 0'03"108
18. PANIS BAR Honda 1'38"390 + 0'03"124
19. MCNISH Toyota 1'38"959 + 0'03"693
20. IRVINE Jaguar Cosworth 1'39"121 + 0'03"855
21. WEBBER Minardi Asiatech 1'39"454 + 0'04"188
22. YOONG Minardi Asiatech 1'40"158 + 0'04"892