Schumacher and Montoya battle it out for pole


By Greig Murray
July 20 2002

Ferrari will start from 2nd and 3rd for the 2002 French Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher had to settle for 3rd place after another titanic battle with Montoya for the pole position. Barrichello will line up 3rd as Montoya took his fifth straight pole position in a brilliant session!

  More News >> Ferrari Pictures >> Ferrari Shop >> Meet The Team

Unusually for qualifying we did not have to wait long to see a Ferrari on track as with 10 minutes into the hour long session gone Rubens Barrichello is out on track for his opening run of the day. The Brazilian puts in a good banker lap of 1m 13.058 seconds which wont be good enough for pole position but a good start for Barrichello. Both Williams drivers are out early in the session as well as Michael Schumacher gets into the F2002 cockpit ready to take to the track also. A notable absence from qualifying is Giancarlo Fissichella who suffered a major shunt in the morning practice sessions and was taken to hospital. Arrows will not be part of the race either as they fail to qualify only doing 1 lap then packing up.

Montoya is the first to challenge the Barrichello time and the Colombian moves into provisional pole position and Ralf Schumacher moves into second place. However Michael Schumacher was soon to take to the track and he was on the pace right away taking the track by the scuff of it’s neck and looking set for the fastest lap, but a mistake once again at the final chicane has the German running across the gravel wrecking his lap but amazingly still goes third! But the race stewards delete his lap for crossing the chicane via the gravel.

Rubens is back out for his second run of the day and he is up at split 1 but once again appears uncertain of the car in sector 3 but his good first sector was good enough to leap him into provisional pole with a lap of 1.12.552. But once again the Williams of Montoya was to re-take the fastest lap with a 1.12.346 as Michael Schumacher rejoins the track once more. Schumacher is up at split 1, up at spilt 2 and crosses the line with a 1.12.287 to move into provisional pole. Schumacher however was a little cautious through sector 3 and lost some time.

20 minutes to go in the session and the top six is: M Schumacher, Montoya, Raikkonen, Barrichello, R Schumacher and Jenson Button. Montoya is back out on track as he once again aims to remove a Ferrari from pole position and once again Montoya moves back into provisional pole with a 1.12.117. The third sector is where Michael has lost out to Montoya and he will be looking to amend that on his next run. Barrichello has no improvement on gird position on his third run and he remains in fourth place.

14 minutes to go and the no1 Ferrari is back out on track for his third run of the day, sector 3 is the key area for Michael to improve in. And despite being up at split 2 Michael remains in second place although he improves to a 1.12.212 once again the third sector letting him down. But once again Schumacher’s time is deleted after he skipped the apex at turn 7 he remains in second however and one final chance to get that pole position.

5 minutes to go and Barrichello is out for his final stab at pole and he goes faster than before and moves into second place ahead of Michael with a lap of 1.12.197. And more trouble for Michael as Raikkonen goes into third place dropping Schumacher down to fourth and one run left. And a fantastic finale to the session has Montoya once again take the pole position as he and Michael battle it out. Schumacher will have to settle for second place. But with Bridgestone expecting a great racing tyre we are all set once more for a Schumacher v Montoya battle in tomorrow’s race.

Full Times

1. MONTOYA Williams BMW 1'11"985 212.594 Km/h
2. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1'12"008 + 0'00"023
3. BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1'12"197 + 0'00"212

4. RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes 1'12"244 + 0'00"259
5. R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 1'12"424 + 0'00"439
6. COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes 1'12"498 + 0'00"513
7. BUTTON Renault 1'12"761 + 0'00"776
8. TRULLI Renault 1'13"030 + 0'01"045
9. IRVINE Jaguar Cosworth 1'13"188 + 0'01"203
10. HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1'13"370 + 0'01"385
11. PANIS BAR Honda 1'13"457 + 0'01"472
12. MASSA Sauber Petronas 1'13"501 + 0'01"516
13. VILLENEUVE BAR Honda 1'13"506 + 0'01"521
14. SATO Jordan Honda 1'13"542 + 0'01"557
15. DE LA ROSA Jaguar Cosworth 1'13"656 + 0'01"671
16. SALO Toyota 1'13"837 + 0'01"852
17. MCNISH Toyota 1'13"949 + 0'01"964
18. WEBBER Minardi Asiatech 1'14"800 + 0'02"815
19. YOONG Minardi Asiatech 1'16"798 + 0'04"813
20. FRENTZEN Arrows Cosworth 1'18"497 + 0'06"512
21. BERNOLDI Arrows Cosworth 1'19"843 + 0'07"858

  Voice Your Opinion >> Ferrari FAQ >> Mailing List >> Contact Us

Bookmark or share this story with:

 

Ferrari F1 latest threads