Schumacher hammers rivals in new Ferrari

You have to go back to 1998 for the last time a new Ferrari failed to win on its debut, a statistic that will depress the red team's rivals in the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend after Michael Schumacher set the fastest time in yesterday's qualifying session here using the long-awaited F2003-GA.

After spending the morning finding out more about the car's behaviour and its reaction to certain changes, Schumacher laid the hammer down when it mattered and his lap of 1min 17.130sec was never bettered. He admitted that sitting in the cockpit of a grand prix car again had been the best way to take his mind off the death of his mother a fortnight ago.

"I feel very comfortable in the car and, after a good start, it means we can be confident for the rest of the weekend," observed the champion. "It is a nice feeling to be racing the new car and this provisional pole means that so far the car has lived up to our expectations." It has also lived up to the expectations of others, though a troubled Juan Pablo Montoya, only 14th-fastest for BMW-Williams, said he didn't think the Ferrari was anything like as quick as he had anticipated.

What was less expected was that Renault, in the shape of Jarno Trulli, would be Ferrari's closest challenger. Though the aerodynamic package of Mike Gascoyne's car is generally acknowledged to be one of the finest in the business, the French V10 is notably underpowered in comparison to many of its rivals. For all the Circuit de Catalunya's long, long straight, the venue is more about aerodynamic efficiency and tyre wear.

Schumacher predicted the cars would slide all over the place if the race is as hot as expected, and certainly many drivers were missing apexes yesterday as their rubber let them down. "We have planned for our car to slide around," he admitted, "so were are ready for any eventuality."

Underlining the red car's potential, Rubens Barrichello was third-fastest, even though he had to take over the spare car at late notice after his intended vehicle developed a water leak. "It was only very late in the session we decided my race car wasn't going to be ready so there were some small confusions over the position of the pedals Michael likes and what I like," said the Brazilian, who took over a car set up for his team-mate. "I thought I might not even go out, so for me it was a relief to get going."

While both Ferrari drivers smiled and Trulli celebrated not just a strong second-fastest effort but also eclipsing his troublesome team-mate, Fernando Alonso, on the latter's home ground, there were long faces at McLaren-Mercedes and BMW-Williams.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard had to go out first and second as leaders in the world championship, so had to run when the track was at its dirtiest and clocked eighth- and ninth-fastest respectively. "Naturally I'm disappointed not be closer to front," said Coulthard. "The way the system works, it handicaps those further up the championship order. The track conditions were worse at the start of the session after the SEAT touring cars had been running, and small mistakes on the dirty track cost us time. But there wasn't much else we could have done."

McLaren's disappointment was nothing compared to that of BMW-Williams, especially as Ralf Schumacher, 11th-fastest in qualifying, had been fastest in the morning. Both Schumacher and Montoya struggled visibly with poor handling, prompting the outspoken Colombian to describe his set-up as "the worst I have had in all our running here."

Off track, the governing body, the FIA, confirmed that teams had agreed unanimously to a complete ban on automatic gearboxes and launch control starting mechanisms for 2004, but that they had been able to show that the elimination of the controversial traction control systems would involve very significant costs. So traction control will still be allowed.