Motor Racing: Michael Schumacher staked an early claim to a career fourth Monaco Grand Prix pole position by taking the top spot in yesterday's first qualifying session in the principality.  Justin Hynes in Monte Carlo, reports

The German was second out on track after championship leader Kimi Raikkonen and when the young McLaren driver erred midway through his lap, Schumacher capitalised with a flawless performance around Monte Carlo's winding, narrow streets to post a time over a second quicker than his rival.

Schumacher's comfort zone at the top of the time-sheet was eroded by team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who came to within four-tenths of the world champion, and by BAR's Jenson Button, who continued the good work of his fourth-place finish in the Austrian GP to take third yesterday, just over half a second adrift of Schumacher.

But it will be Schumacher who will run last tomorrow and have potentially the best chance of securing the all-important front-of-grid spot for Sunday. Last year the Ferrari driver toiled fruitlessly behind McLaren's David Coulthard to finish a frustrating second. This time around, he seems determined to avoid similar entanglements.

"I'm happy with my time this afternoon," said Schumacher, "because the track was quite slippery as I was only the second car to run. Right since the start of the practice session, though, the car has been well balanced, which helped a lot.

"It's always difficult to predict what's going to happen in Monaco, but we can be pretty confident for the rest of the weekend. The car is working well, we've identified our tyre choice early, so now, and on Saturday, we can work on establishing the right fuel strategy for final qualifying and the race."

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis later insisted he was unconcerned about the positions of his drivers for tomorrow's one-lap shoot-out, saying both Coulthard and Raikkonen had been conservative in their approach to yesterday's session as the Scot finished the day fifth, while Raikkonen dropped to 11th.

"Both drivers took a cautious approach to qualifying as a result of them not being particularly happy with the balance of the car during the morning practice session," said Dennis. "Kimi's lap was particularly bad as the team took a calculated risk with a set-up change to the car, which proved wrong. As always, though, it's Saturday that's important."

And how important it can be at Monaco. The principality's narrow, winding course provides few overtaking possibilities and the outcome of Formula One's crowning glory can often be decided tomorrow afternoon.

Which is potentially good news for Jordan. Giancarlo Fisichella turned in another impressive performance yesterday to take his EJ13 to seventh, behind Renault's Jarno Trulli, Coulthard and Williams' Ralf Schumacher, sixth.

The Italian admitted the result was positive and that the handling of his Jordan was good around the tortuous circuit.

"The car's balance here is not too bad," he said. "I'm pleased with a top-10 time, although I'm sure there was the possibility even to get on the second row today. My lap was clean but not fantastic, so I'm looking forward to qualifying and the race."

Ralph Firman, making his Monaco debut, benefited from Jordan's two hours of private testing in the morning to familiarise himself with this most challenging of tracks and finished 13th.

"I'm happy with that," he said afterwards. "It's my first time here and I love the circuit. I feel really at home and I can't wait to get out again on Saturday. I was cautious on the first two sectors because of oil on the circuit (deposited by Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Sauber) when the session restarted, but I've got a pretty good pace, especially on the last sector. I think this could be my best chance yet of scoring some more points."

Indeed, Firman's final-sector time was the sixth-quickest of the day, showing that the rookie F1 pilot has not forgotten how to drive a street circuit since his F3 win around the streets of Macau in 1996.

Jordan engineering chief Gary Anderson praised Firman. "Ralph is the fastest newcomer so that's a great initiation for him," said Anderson. "He hasn't really put a wheel wrong. There have been a couple of brushes with an armco but no damage at all. That's pretty commendable, a good effort."

The heavily tipped Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, was, at least in part, the architect of his own misfortune, the young Spaniard erring on his hot lap, though according to Renault's chief engineer Pat Symonds, Alonso's descent down the order to 14th could not solely be explained by the youngster's errors. Symonds said the team would examine Alonso's car overnight.