Saturday June 3rd, 2000

By Timothy Collings

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher wore a broad smile after securing the 25th pole position of his career for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix.

In front of a huge crowd, the 31-year-old German drove with great precision on Saturday to clock a best time of one minute 19.475 seconds on the twisting street track.

Defending world champion Mika Hakkinen could do no better than qualify in fifth place in his McLaren.

Italian Jarno Trulli was second fastest in a Jordan and Briton David Coulthard, in the other McLaren, was third.

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen was fourth in the second Jordan and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello secured sixth spot with a late, fast lap in the second Ferrari.

Hakkinen was down in 17th place with a quarter of an hour of the one-hour session left before pulling himself back into contention with just seconds remaining.

"It could have been a lot worse than this," said Hakkinen. "You always have a chance at Monaco. Anything can happen, even from fifth place."

Schumacher grinned in the post-session news conference as he said: "Fifth? That is good. I hope he is still there at this time tomorrow -- after the race. That would be good for me, I think. That would be more important."

Schumacher will seek to be the first driver to win a Formula One world championship race from pole position in 12 attempts since Hakkinen triumphed in his McLaren at the Hungaroring in last year's Hungarian Grand Prix.

"For me, it is as near to a perfect session and a perfect day as you could hope to have," he said.

Schumacher traded fastest times with Coulthard and Trulli before landing pole position and enhancing his prospects of lifting Ferrari's first drivers' world title for 21 years and the third of his career.

The tight Monte Carlo circuit is notoriously difficult for overtaking and with Hakkinen fifth Schumacher knows that only a poor start, a bad error or mechanical failure could upset his hopes of claiming the 40th victory of his career.

New Helmet

Schumacher is wearing a new helmet this weekend, to make him stand out - according to him.

Although he starts from pole position tomorrow, Schumacher clearly felt he needed a little extra assistance to make sure he avoided trouble with the back-markers.

"It has a wider visor which gives me a better field of vision, especially at the sides," he said. "And the slightly different colour scheme will help make it easier to spot me and not to confuse me with Rubens (Barrichello)."