Montoya's late charge spoils Ferrari's day

Silverstone 2002: Fourth pole in succession for the best qualifier in the game - now the pressure is on for a win

One of these days Juan Pablo Montoya is going to perform the motor racing equivalent of alchemy and turn a pole position into a race win. The Colombian, the best qualifier in the game, would like nothing better than for that to happen today having taken the premier slot on the grid for the fourth successive time. The last three races – in Monaco, Montreal and at the Nürburgring – have all gone against him, but sooner or later his luck must turn. It would be apposite for it to happen in Sir Frank Williams' and Patrick Head's back yard.

Before the BMW Williams driver stiffened his sinews for his final, successful attack at the end of yesterday's qualifying session, Silverstone 2002 had been all about Ferrari. In the rain on Friday the European Grand Prix winner Rubens Barrichello had again kept his team-mate Michael Schumacher behind him with another strong and convincing performance, capitalising on a rare error which saw the world champion lose half the day after spinning off and stalling on his first quick lap of the morning. Yesterday's free practice session in the morning continued the trend as the Brazilian and the German fought for the fastest time. Qualifying initially followed a similar pattern, even though Barrichello lost one run when oil from Jenson Button's broken Renault engine made the track slippery.

This is the crunch year for Silverstone, after its years of traffic-flow problems. The first indications are that the new A43 bypass and other improvements have made a significant difference. But at the same time deliberately inflated ticket prices and restricted availability had also done their work. It was an unusually small crowd that watched as Schumacher established the red car's superiority to take pole position with a time of 1min 19.491sec on his first run.

While that was good for him, the first outings spelled disaster for Button and Giancarlo Fisichella, racing for the DHL Jordan Honda team which is based right across the road from Silverstone's main entrance. Button's engine grenaded itself, while Fisichella, his former team-mate, also stopped with engine troubles. Proving just how fit the modern F1 racer is, both men reappeared in their respective pits to take over their spare cars within five minutes of their race cars failing. But already each man's afternoon had been compromised. Button's replacement Renault had neither the more powerful qualifying engine nor the aerodynamically improved bodywork of its sister. While his team-mate Jarno Trulli qualified seventh, Button, clearly the faster of the pair all weekend, had to do with 12th place.

"The car was working well this weekend," said Button, who was favoured for a podium finish before his misfortune, "but with the spare the aero package was working differently and I didn't have as much grip. Of course it's disappointing. But the cars ahead of me on the grid don't have a launch control system like Renault's so I hope I can make up a lot of ground then. That's the only way, really." Fiscihella, meanwhile, once again found himself outpaced by his team-mate Takuma Sato, who had briefly held the fastest time in the early minutes.

Mano a mano, the two Ferrari drivers pushed one another along, while not far behind (though apparently too far to pose a real challenge), Montoya and his BMW Williams partner Ralf Schumacher were likewise engaged in one of those battles of pride by which drivers set so much store. One of the inflexible tenets of motor racing is that every racer wants to be quicker than his team partner. After changing his rear wing, Barrichello again underlined his improving form. A lap of 1:19.032 seemed to have snatchedpole from Michael Schumacher, especially as the best BMW Williams time to that point was Ralf Schumacher's 1:19.329. He was close, but not yet in cigar-taking territory as Montoya cut loose on his last run with a superb lap of 1:18.998, which withstood all subsequent assaults.

"It was a big surprise, to be honest," Montoya admitted. "I really was expecting to get to the end of the second row. From what we saw in testing when we came here last I managed to do about five laps, so we didn't have a clue about the balance of the car or anything, and from then on we just made big changes. It was very understeery, and the last one, it was a bit oversteery in high-speed corners, but it goes quick!" One man who was not happy with the Colombian was Nick Heidfeld, whose best lap for Sauber Petronas was half a second up on his previous time until Montoya, about to warm up for his quick run, unaccountably blocked him in the final stages of the lap. "I nearly hit the back of his car at Priory Corner," Heidfeld said. "He's happy because he's on pole, but he ruined my best lap. I don't know what he was thinking. For me he's an idiot who should be penalised." The German had to settle for 10th place, just ahead of his team-mate, Felipe Massa.

It won't have helped Heidfeld's demeanour to see his former partner Kimi Raikkonen coming out on top of the McLaren team battle, the dour Finn tigering his way round to the fifth fastest time of 1:20.133 to edge out the former British Grand Prix winner David Coulthard, who had held the upper hand for much of the weekend. "The third row is what we expected," said the philosophical Scot. "So far this year our race performance has been better than qualifying, so I'm looking forward to racing in front of my home crowd." Unlike the Nürburgring, where Ferrari undid the BMW Williams cars' qualifying form within half a lap of the race. It is more difficult to overtake at Silverstone, which places a premium on solid race strategy. It's tough to see Ferrari losing, but by the same token the red cars looked a shoe-in for pole until Montoya found the Big One.