Rain prevents Ferrari pole shot.

After another thrilling battle between the BMW-Williams of Juan Pablo Montoya and the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher, it was the Colombian who claimed his second consecutive pole as rain determined the qualifying battle for the Canadian Grand Prix.

After a 'safe' early lap due to the threat of rain, Montoya pushed hard on his second run to improve by 1.5secs, setting a time that was to be good enough for pole by almost two-tenths of a second. Schumacher pushed his Ferrari to the limit, improving with each run, but his hopes of taking pole on his final run was spoiled by rain.

"It was an exciting session and, with second place on the grid, I can be confident for the race," Schumacher allowed, "I am a little bit disappointed not to have been able to fight for pole right at the end. We might have been able to get there but, if you look at my sector times, we were very close but just didn't get it together.

"On my third run, which was my fastest one, I lost some time in the first sector. I knew where I had lost it and why, so I was optimistic for my last run, but then came the rain. We knew there was a chance of rain, but not when it could come exactly. The track was just to damp and so I backed off as there was no point to push."

After a difficult day, Rubens Barrichello was delighted to take third place by the end of the session, despite a spin on his third run when he got too enthusiastic riding the kerbs.

"In terms of time, I would like to have been quicker, but I am happy with the position," the Brazilian said, "After my accident this morning, I got in only 16 laps running, so I was playing catch-up with the set-up of the car which wasn't quite right.

"Obviously, the car could not be great in these circumstances but, all in all, I am happy with the result. On my third run, I hit a kerb and spun. Then, for my last run, the track was already too slippery. We had a great engine, which worked really well. We can be optimistic for tomorrow because I think we are in a strong position to get a good result."

"Today, things turned out as we predicted yesterday - with a very close fight for the top positions," team boss Jean Todt commented, "We achieved our primary objective - in other words, getting both cars onto the front two rows. The complete F2002 package - car, engine and tyres - worked well. We can expect a very close fight with our main rivals tomorrow and I am convinced we can have a good race. Our aim is to bring home some important points for both championships, as we know that this race is always tough in terms of reliability, especially for the engine and brakes."