MAGNY-COURS, France, 6 July 2003 — Williams reinforced their credentials as Ferrari’s major Formula One rivals yesterday when Germany’s Ralf Schumacher clinched pole position for today’s French Grand Prix and teammate Juan Pablo Montoya then joined him on the front row.
Ralf, the winner at the European Grand Prix last week, took his third pole in the last four races as he clocked 1min 15.019secs with Montoya a fraction behind in 1:15.136.
World champion Michael Schumacher, chasing his third successive win here and seventh in all, had to settle for third place ahead of the two McLarens of Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard.
The result represented a return to business as usual after the drama of Friday when the Minardi of Jos Verstappen was fastest on the track as the big names struggled on a wet surface.
There was never a danger of a repeat yesterday as the rain stayed away to be replaced by hazy sunshine. Justin Wilson was first out after having his second best time of Friday’s qualifying stripped because of an underweight Minardi. The Englishman had to sprint back to the pits for the spare car, however, having spun his car off the track in the warm-up and struggled to clock 1min 19.619. Britain’s Jenson Button, the slowest driver in Friday’s opening session followed in his BAR and dipped over 2.5secs beneath Wilson in 1:17.077 before Renault’s Fernando Alonso moved ahead on 1:16.087.
Then the big guns, who had run in the wet at the start of Friday’s period and finished way down the field, made their entry and Ralf Schumacher immediately took more than a second off Alonso and took over the lead. Raikkonen, who took pole at the European Grand Prix last weekend, struggled with the handling of his McLaren and went second at the time with 1:15.533.
