Schu takes historic 66th pole
Saturday, 22, April, 2006, 14:14
Micheal Schumacher put in a brilliant performance at Imola to break Ayrton Senna's record of 65 career poles.
The Ferrari ace has been dominant all weekend and now starts the San Marino Grand Prix ahead of the two Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.
Here's how it happened...
Phase 3:
Michael Schumacher has taken an historic pole position for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
The seven-time world champion claimed a 66th career pole, one more than the legendary Ayrton Senna, and his fifth at the Italian circuit.
Schumacher has dominated through-out the weekend and Ferrari and Bridgestone seem to have an edge this weekend.
Jenson Button put in a brilliant last minute effort to join the great man on the front row.
The Honda star just beat his revitalised Honda team-mate Rubens Barrichello with his final flying lap.
Felipe Massa moved up to fourth in the second Ferrari with his final quick lap while world champion Fernando Alonso could only manage fifth.
This will be Renault's worst collective starting positions on a track that is notorious for its lack of overtaking opportunities.
Ralf Schumacher ended the session sixth after a strong weekend so far for the Toyota driver.
Juan Pablo Montoya's last lap put him ahead of his McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen as the pair occupy the fourth row in what looked like two heavily-fuelled cars.
Jarno Trulli was ninth, while Mark Webber appeared to be conserving his Williams for the race in tenth.
Phase 2:
Michael Schumacher set an awesome lap of 1m22.579s to scorch his way in to the final top ten shoot-out after the second phase of qualifying.
The big surprise though is that Giancarlo Fisichella has been knocked out after being caught out in the final tumble of times.
Schumacher was more than half a second quicker than McLaren star Kimi Raikkonen, who for the first time this weekend gave us a glimpse of his true potential.
Ralf Schumacher maintained his astonishing pace for Toyota by going third quickest again, while Felipe Massa was fourth after a mistake in the chicane.
Mark Webber put in a last minute blinder to go fifth, although his lap ensured that Williams team-mate Nico Rosberg will not be in the top-ten shoot-out.
Jarno Trulli made it two Toyotas in the top ten ahead of former team-mate Fernando Alonso.
Both Hondas made it in with Rubens Barrichello matching Jenson Button's pace.
Juan Pablo Montoya was the man on the bubble.
With the times so close, Fisi was to a certain extent unlucky just to be caught out at the wrong time.
He was joined in the drop zone by Jacques Villeneuve, Rosberg, David Coulthard; Vitantonio Liuzzi and Nick Heidfeld who clouted the wall at Rivazza two right at the end of the segment.
Phase 1:
Fernando Alonso set the fastest time of the weekend so far to secure his place in the second part of qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix.
His 1m23.536s lap was nearly a second faster than McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and Toyota's Ralf Schumacher, who replicated his free practice speed from this morning.
Giancarlo Fisichella was fourth ahead of Jarno Trulli in the second Toyota.
Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello are all comfortably through.
David Coulthard was forced to use another set of tyres to ensure his place in Phase 2, while Vitantonio Liuzzi was impressive in 11th.
Nico Rosberg and Juan Pablo Montoya are also both through despite being in spare cars after problems in practice.
Christian Klien was the biggest name to get dumped out of the session. The Austrian Red Bull driver set the same time as Nick Heidfeld, but lost out because he completed his lap later.
Also out are Scott Speed, Tiago Monteiro, Christijan Albers, Takuma Sato and Yuji Ide.