20.03.2004 FIRING A WARNING NOTE TO HIS RIVALS MICHAEL SCHUMACHER EASILY CLINCHES POLE POSITION IN MALAYSIA

Michael Schumacher stormed to a 57th F1 pole position in the heat of Sepang, firing a warning note to his rivals who had been hoping that Ferrari's Bridgestone tyres would not have the edge in Malaysia.

Schumacher, who won the opening race of the season in Melbourne a fortnight ago, drove a perfect lap to claim a fifth pole in six Malaysian Grands Prix and Ferrari's 168th pole in their history. Over half a second adrift, Mark Webber put in the performance of the afternoon when he placed the green and white Jaguar onto the outside of the front row. Rubens Barrichello lines up third in the second Ferrari F2004.

The Renault's had looked the most likely team to take the fight to Ferrari after they had run out fastest in Saturday morning practice. However in qualifying Jarno Trulli could only manage eighth slot, while Fernando Alonso, the last man on track, spun into the gravel and will start tomorrow's race dead last.

Behind Barrichello in fourth, and almost a second off Schumacher's pole winning time, came the Williams-BMW of Juan Pablo Montoya, the Colombian himself lining up just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren-Mercedes. Jenson Button put in another strong performance in the BAR-Honda to take sixth place, while the top ten was rounded out by Ralf Schumacher ( Williams ), Jarno Trulli ( Renault ), David Coulthard ( McLaren ) and Christiano da Matta ( Toyota ).

Jean Todt : 'Having two Bridgestone-shod Ferraris in first and third places on the grid is certainly an encouraging sign for tomorrow’s race. However, at the risk of repeating myself, without knowing what fuel loads and strategies our rivals have opted for, we cannot draw any definite conclusion as to the pecking order amongst the teams. In any case, today’s performance, in very high temperatures, shows that the work we have done this winter in conjunction with Bridgestone is bearing fruit. The start, reliability, strategy, the fitness of the drivers: these will be the key elements in a very long and difficult race.'

Michael Schumacher : 'I have to say it was a mind-blowing lap, really perfect and spot-on. We were not quite there on Friday, but the whole team worked very well to get the programme back on track. The main reason I picked up so much time between the two runs was that the track improved a lot with much more grip. I tried to be careful in the final sector where it is easy to make mistakes in the last two corners. Tomorrow, the car will not be affected much by the heat, but with the high temperatures the tyre grip goes down. Inside the cockpit, it will be very hard work for us tomorrow and even though we expect that here, it seems to get harder every year as the cars get quicker.'

Rubens Barrichello : 'I am not worried about the time difference to Michael. Firstly, I made a small mistake in the last corner and then I made some different choices to my team-mate. So, although I was not entirely happy with my car in terms of qualifying, I have concentrated very hard on the race and am very happy with my set-up for tomorrow, when I hope everything will come my way. In this heat, it will be a very difficult race.'

Ross Brawn : 'Michael did a perfect lap. Our engineers did a fine job in defining the set-up, to make the car very well balanced. Given how hard we worked after yesterday’s practice in terms of analysing the data and deciding which way to go, I think this was a well deserved result. I did not expect to have such a big advantage over our competitors, keeping in mind that we don’t know what fuel loads they are running. So it is difficult to predict what will happen in the race. Tyres will be crucial.'

Qualifying - First session, Michael Schumacher: 4th 1.33.865 3 laps chassis 234; Rubens Barrichello: 6th 1.34.132 3 laps chassis 236; Temperatures: air 34° C, track 45° C

Qualifying - Second session, Michael Schumacher: 1st 1.33.074 3 laps chassis 234; Rubens Barrichello: 3rd 1.33.756 3 laps chassis 236; Temperatures: air 35° C, track 45° C