 Schumacher on Pole - Australian GP Saturday March 8th, 2003 By Timothy Collings Michael Schumacher delivered the expected amid rumours of the unexpected on Saturday when he claimed pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. It was his 51st pole success and he lines up on the grid alongside his Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello, an outcome few dared to predict after two days of concealed tactics at the Albert Park circuit. No-one knows, however, what the fuel loads were among the leading teams and what their strategy for the first race in the new era of Max Mosley's radical redesigned F1 will be - Schumacher could be on a two-stop strategy, a one-stopper or even three. But his efforts at least helped to wipe away the taste of cynicism brought into play by Paul Stoddart's clever decision to decline the chance to clock a qualifying lap by calling his drivers to return to the Minardi garage without a competitive lap time. In Sunday's race, of course, Schumacher will be bidding to win his fourth successive Australian Grand Prix and to launch his bid for a sixth world title in the kind of emphatic fashion that characterised his dominant success in 2002. As usual, this time around, in spite of all the rule changes, he looked cool and confident throughout. Schumacher clocked a best time of 1:27.173 to outpace Barrichello by two-tenths, the little Brazilian running last in the session after Finn Kimi Raikkonen in his McLaren had run off the track in a bid to clock a fast time. He was the penultimate runner and he finished up 15th on the grid. Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia in his Williams was third fastest and shares the second row of the grid with German Heinz-Harald Frentzen in a Sauber, Frenchman Olivier Panis in a Toyota was fifth and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve was sixth in the improved BAR-Honda. The first blatant example of tactical controversy came earlier when Minardi drivers Justin Wilson and Jos Verstappen returned to their team garage without clocking a competitive qualifying time. "It was a deliberate strategy on our part," said team spokesman Graham Jones. "We did it to avoid going into the parc ferme and to be able to continue to work on our cars. Of course, we know we should start from the back of the grid, but we can do what we want." It meant that the Minardi pair could work on their cars and start Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix with full tanks if they wished. The Minardis were two of the first three teams out on to the track as they ran in reverse order following Friday's provisional session.
Published at 03:52:53 GMT
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