"I am very pleased with today's pole, especially because it came as a bit of a surprise!" exclaimed Montoya in a press release. "After this morning's practice sessions we were not expecting anything higher than the second row, actually.

"We changed the car quite a lot from this morning but in my first run I made a mistake, the second went better and on my third run I got the pole. I still don't know where the speed came from and I must admit that luck also played a part in my result. Tomorrow is going to be a hard race where I think the tyres will be a key factor."

Schumacher was magnanimous in defeat, despite losing out on pole by just 9/1000ths of a second. "It is very good that we could achieve this great result after having struggled a bit this morning," he remarked. "It was planned from the start that I would have three runs, instead of the usual four.

"Juan hit back in his third stint, which meant that my strategy cost me pole position. This should make Michael's life more difficult if he wants to overtake us in the race. I hope I will be finally able to step on the podium here at the Nürburgring."

Sam Michael chief operations engineer added: "After a quite difficult practice the team managed to get it together for qualifying. This was really a good performance from everybody. Once again we are on the front row on a circuit well known for rewarding mechanical grip and downforce.

"Michelin once again produced tyres capable of putting us on the front row with only 0.009 between Juan and Ralf and we should have a good race tomorrow against Ferrari."