Schumacher second in ding-dong battle.

Michael Schumacher had to settle for a place on the outside of the front row as he prepares for a possible world championship celebration on Sunday, having been out-gunned by the Williams of Juan Montoya in French GP qualifying.

The Colombian improved with each of his four runs, while Schumacher was left with just two chances to make top spot after having his first and third runs ruled out by the stewards for using too much of the area behind the kerbs in his search for a quick lap. Despite his problems, however, the German admitted that the better man had won on the day, and that starting second was of little consequence given recent results.

"I enjoyed this afternoon's battle for pole," Schumacher said, "On my first run, I missed the apex at the last chicane, hit the kerb and ran wide, so my time did not count. I thought it was so slow that they would allow it, but it did not matter. Then, on my third run, the car stepped out at the fast chicane and I had to go in a straight line. Quite rightly, they took that time away also. Then, on my final run, I lost a bit of time in the final sector.

"I think it will be a much closer race than the last ones, but we don't really have a full picture of what to expect. Starting on the 'dirty' side of the track does not make a big difference at this circuit. Whether I win for the sixth time here will be up to the guys in front and behind!"

"We witnessed a great fight in this qualifying session, with three teams getting their six cars within the half second," team boss Jean Todt commented on the close proximity of Ferrari, Williams and McLaren, "We were aiming to get both our cars on the two front rows and we have achieved that but, of course, it is a shame to have lost out on pole by just 23-hundredths of a second."

The team's second car was restricted to third on the grid, although Rubens Barrichello twice sat on the provisional pole. The performance did not accurately reflect the Brazilian's session, however, and he was left with mixed emotions at the end of the timed hour.

"Considering that this morning, when the car was not working the way I like it, this is a good position for the start," he admitted, "We made a lot of changes on the car between the sessions and the engineers did a good job. At the start of qualifying, there was already a big improvement compared with the morning, and then we fine tuned it more during the session. But I was a little bit disappointed with my fourth run when I did not get it all together. I think I could have done a 1m 12s, but not an 11.8."

Ross Brawn backed up Schumacher's assertion that pole position was not necessarily the best place to start given recent results.

"We would have preferred to be on pole, but that could have spoilt the recent tradition, which has seen us win the last three races without starting from the front," the technical director smiled, "Michael did a great lap at the end and almost managed to set the quickest time, so we can expect a close race tomorrow. Strategy is very
important at this race, as we proved last year. If we can stay with Montoya, there is a good chance we can try and win through the pit stops."