Michael Schumacher blasted his way to pole position for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona today.
The world champion dominated qualifying on the Circuit de Catalunya to claim his fourth pole in five races this season and the 36th of his career.
McLaren's Mika Hakkinen, who has won the race for the past three years, produced a late flying lap to get within 0.085 seconds of the German.
Scotland's David Coulthard, who jointly leads the championship with the Ferrari driver, lost out on a front-row placing to his team-mate Hakkinen.
Coulthard, the only other man to take top spot this season, had to settle for third just over 0.4secs off the pace set by Schumacher.
Brazil's Rubens Barrichello was fourth fastest in the other Ferrari.
Ralf Schumacher, winner of the last race in Italy two weeks ago, maintained his perfect qualifying record over fellow Williams driver Juan PabloMontoya with fifth spot.
Montoya finished back in 12th place while Jordan's Jarno Trulli was sixth fastest. Frentzen in the other Jordan finished in 8th place.
Eddie Irvine was 13th for Jaguar Racing while Jenson Button, racing despite a shoulder injury, finished in 21st for Benetton for the secondqualifying session in a row.
Schumacher never looked like losing out on pole after toppling Coulthard from the top of the timesheets with his first qualifying run midwaythrough the hour-long session.
The 32-year-old went quicker next time out and will now start favourite to claim his third victory of the season after missing out in the last tworaces.
PA