Motor sport: Coulthard takes pole in Monaco

MONTE CARLO - Speed in Monaco is all about grip, precision and a clear lap. Michael Schumacher is habitually the most adept at this juggling act, and fleetingly it was business as normal for the world champion in his Ferrari.

But just when it seemed that the German had yet again wrapped up pole position, David Coulthard once again underlined the calibre of his threat for this year's championship title to upstage him in the dying moments.

Without question it was one of the Scot's finest performances.

Schumacher had traded fastest time with Coulthard's team-mate, Mika Hakkinen, ever since they hit the track yesterday, and qualifying quickly became the expected battle of Ferrari v McLaren.

At first Coulthard was the man in charge from Hakkinen, as Schumacher's session got off to a bad start when he was baulked in the chicane by the Brazilian driver Enrique Bernoldi and elected to abort his first quick lap.

Hakkinen gathered pace in the second runs, becoming the first man to break the 1min 18sec barrier with a lap of 1:17.957, fractions ahead of Coulthard.

But Schumacher belatedly hit his stride and moved from third place to first on his third attempt, slicing three-tenths of a second from Hakkinen's best.

Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari squeezed Coulthard down to fourth as he joined the sub-1:18 élite.

In the final shoot-out Schumacher and Hakkinen failed by fractions to better their times, but Coulthard rose splendidly to the occasion.

An incident at the Ste Devote, the first corner on the track, brought out local yellow flags, which notify a driver of possible danger and oblige him to slow down.

But Coulthard had passed the incident before the flags came out and was thus entitled to remain at full speed on his final attempt.

The result was a lap two tenths of a second faster than the master, and the perfect starting position for a race in which the driver in the lead holds all of the cards.

"Despite all pole positions being important, at Monaco it is essential because it is so difficult to overtake here," Coulthard said.

"I was able to avoid traffic and the front end [of the car] was working well, which allowed me to really hit the apex of the corners.

"At the end I had to wait to hear whether Mika or Michael was going quicker, and when I heard on the radio that I had pole it was great!"

In the past there has not been much love lost between these two, but Schumacher was magnanimous in 'defeat'.

David did a better job today," he conceded. "I just never got a perfect lap."

- INDEPENDENT