Shoo-in as Schus shine

It may have been four months since Michael Schumacher started from pole position, but the Ferrari driver proved that neither his speed nor his commitment has been dulled by winning yet another championship in France last Sunday.

If anything, Schumacher's fastest qualifying lap for today's German Grand Prix was an audacious piece of exhibitionism rather than his usual precise demonstration of clinical correctness.

The flamboyance brought to his work had a joie de vivre usually associated with Juan Pablo Montoya and perhaps it was fitting that the Colombian's run of pole positions should be ended by a breathtaking display from the champion. The best Montoya could do was fourth fastest and it was left to Ralf Schumacher in the other Williams-BMW to take the challenge to his elder brother.

It is exactly a year since Ralf last won a race and the younger Schumacher looked like setting himself up for an overdue repeat by twice beating the best efforts of his brother in what had become a family dispute over the prime starting position. With nine minutes to go, Ralf re-established himself in front and it was debatable whether or not Michael could respond.

Clearly enjoying himself now that the championship pressures have been removed, Schumacher the elder had attacked with enough vigour on his second run to whack a kerb at the first corner and send the Ferrari skittering across the road and into a run-off area. The fact that the escape road was made of Tarmac rather than gravel added to the sense of freedom, as mistakes were unlikely to be punished by having the car stuck up to its axles in small stones.

The new-style run-offs have been included in revisions that have completely transformed the character of Hockenheim. The longest straights in F1 have been dug up. The new link across the middle, while being fairly bland, is at least smooth and wide enough to encourage the sort of exuberance Schumacher had in mind during the final minute of qualifying.

Using every inch of the track, the German drifted the Ferrari in a glorious display of control that was clearly helped by a forgiving car. Picking up time on every corner, Schumacher edged out his brother by almost two-tenths.

Ralf could only smile and slap his sibling on the back when they climbed from their cars.

'I had no answer to that,' said Ralf. 'But I have no complaints. I hope I'll be able to make my brother's life difficult in the race because it's a while since we won. So far, this has been one of those weekends where everything ran well and I was able to quickly find the right balance for my car.'

Montoya was not so fortunate, the Colombian struggling with the handling and compounding his problem with a small mistake on his final run. Montoya managed to draw some comfort from qualifying on the second row after five pole positions in succession had rarely come close to providing his first win of the season.

'In a way it's good,' said Montoya. 'You don't want to be first on to the long back straight otherwise you will be dragging a lot of people into the hairpin, where they can overtake.'

The McLaren drivers may have a single win between them, but that did not prevent McLaren-Mercedes from confirming the same line-up for 2003. David Coulthard will enter his eighth season with McLaren, but ninth on the grid - three places behind Kimi Raikkonen - was an unfortunate indicator that nothing else is likely to change either as the Scotsman continues to chase an elusive championship, one that may become even more difficult if Raikkonen maintains the very impressive speed seen in France last week.

The McLaren-Mercedes pair, while being quick on most of the lap, lost too much time on the twisting infield section. That may have cost them dear yesterday, but being competitive on the fast and wide expanse of the new section could handily position the silver and grey cars for much-needed overtaking during the 67-lap race.

Whether they will get close to the red cars is another matter, Rubens Barrichello having qualified third in the knowledge that he will receive support from Ferrari and Schumacher as they endeavour to help the Brazilian finish second in the championship. That said, Barrichello will need to get close to Schumacher in order to lay claim to repayment of the favour that saw Barrichello give up a win in Austria. Schumacher made clear yesterday that a home win would be difficult to resist.

'It's a dream to get my first pole at Hockenheim,' said Schumacher. 'I'm more than excited about this and I would like to transform it into victory in the race as I have never won here with Ferrari.'