Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya scorched to a hat-trick of pole positions to spearhead an unexpected Williams-BMW one-two at the European Grand Prix in Germany today.
Montoya took top spot on the reconfigured Nurburgring by just 0.009 seconds from Ralf Schumacher as the team-mates took advantage of world champion Michael Schumacher's technical problems.
Schumacher had to settle for third place on the grid for tomorrow's ninth round of the 17-race season after being forced to switch cars when his Ferrari developed a fault on his first qualifying run.
Brazil's Rubens Barrichello was fourth fastest in the other Ferrari just ahead of David Coulthard whose fellow McLaren-Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen finished in sixth spot.
Jenson Button shrugged off the speculation surrounding his Formula One future to post the eighth fastest time, one place behind Renault team-mate Jarno Trulli, while Eddie Irvine 17th for Jaguar.
The Jordans had a poor session with Takuma Sato managing to take 14th position while Giancarlo Fisichella had one of his worst sessions of the season and lies in 18th, making it unlikely that he can get into the points for the fourth race in a row.
PA