Michael Schumacher fought back from a slide in turn two on his flying lap to snatch pole position away from Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren-Mercedes by three hundredth's of a second. Raikkonen was happy with second after struggling during the practice sessions, while third placed Juan-Pablo Montoya was glad to be nearer the front after a recent poor spell.

Nick Heidfeld lined up his Sauber-Petronas next, presumably running a light fuel load at the team's home circuit, while Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari had to settle for fifth slot, his lap marred by dirt thrown up by the preceeding Jaques Villeneuve's BAR-Honda. 

Elsewhere David Coulthard made three errors on his fastest lap to finish down in 14th place, while Fernando Alonso will start from the pitlane after a visit to the gravel trap saw him abort his flying lap.

FERRARI

Fifth pole position of the season for Ferrari, the fourth with Michael Schumacher. It is the seventh time, the third in a row, that a Ferrari starts the Austrian Grand Prix from pole. This is the Scuderia's 163rd pole and the 54th for Schumacher. 

JEAN TODT

"It was a really exciting qualifying session. Michael managed to take pole position with a lap which saw him having to work very hard, while Rubens, who made different choices to his team-mate, did not quite manage to get the most out of his car and qualified fifth. Splitting our two drivers on the grid are cars from three different teams." 

"Of course, we do not know how much fuel our rivals have on board and tomorrow we can expect a difficult and closely fought race. We know that our package -- drivers, car, Bridgestone tyres and Shell fuel -- puts us in a position to fight for the win. The championship is turning out to be very tight, so it is very important to always get both cars home in the points. That will therefore be our main objective tomorrow and reliability will be the key to reaching it." 

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER

"I am very happy with this pole position. Seeing how close the times were, this result is very satisfying. At the second corner, I had a little wobble but I did not lose too much time because I was able to catch it before the apex and so I did not run off the track and lose traction. After that, I had a good run." 

"Thanks to good work with the engineers, my car has been perfectly balanced since Friday. As for the chance of rain for the race, I feel that in the team we are prepared for anything. I must say that the fact that the FIA can now authorise the use of a tyre for heavy rain conditions is a wise decision from a safety point of view." 

RUBENS BARRICHELLO

"After yesterday's performance I must admit I did not expect to be as far back as fifth on the grid. On my lap the track was not perfectly clean. But I went down a different route to my team-mate in terms of the car and I hope it will pay off in the race. It is sure to be an interesting race tomorrow, as this is a track where one usually sees plenty of overtaking. I hope I will be the one doing most of it!" 

ROSS BRAWN

"It was a very tough session. With the new rules you have to find the balance between qualifying performance and race strategy. Being on pole by a few hundredths of a second mean's that objective has been reached. Michael made a mistake at Turn 2 and we did not think he had a chance, but he got a fantastic result. The car was very good, especially in the second sector. Bridgestone have provided us with very good tyres, especially in terms of the race. Tomorrow, we can expect both our drivers to do well." 

Michael Schumacher: 1st  1.09.150 3 laps  chassis 229 
Rubens Barrichello: 5th  1.09.784 3 laps  chassis 228