Coulthard upstages Schu again

13 April 2012

David Coulthard wrecked rival Michael Schumacher's bid for the Formula One record books as the Scot grabbed pole position at Imola.  

Coulthard ended Schumacher's dream of equalling Ayrton Senna's 13-year-old record of eight poles in a row.

Coulthard had also dashed any hopes the German had of equalling the all-time record for successive victories when he ended his six-race winning streak in Brazil a fortnight ago.

The 30-year-old is determined to inflict another blow by completing the first back-to-back victories of his career tomorrow which could give him the lead in the championship chase.

Coulthard heads into the fourth round of the 17-race season trailing Ferrari's title holder by just six points.

Schumacher could only finish fourth fastest when everybody expected him to match Senna's record on the track where Brazil's three-time world champion suffered his fatal crash in the 1994 race.

Coulthard's McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen and Schumacher's brother Ralf in his Williams qualified second and third.

"I have no doubts that Ferrari expected to be on pole. We have taken a little bit of the wind out of their sails," said Coulthard, whose previous pole was Germany last July.

"I was a bit surprised to get pole but am delighted though. It is always a good feeling but I know this is only part of the weekend and what counts is the race result.

"Ferrari are a very experienced team. They will just say 'this is what's happened, now how do we get the most of this race' and will adopt their strategy.

"Despite this pole Ferrari are still ahead of us at the moment. They are the pacesetters and we are still trying to close that gap.

"But it would be great to win back-to-back races for the first time and there is no reason why I can't, though it is not going to be easy.

"This race is won on pit-stop strategy, as we saw last year when Mika was on pole but Michael got ahead of him in the pit-stops."

Coulthard claimed the 11th pole of his 111-race career right at the end of a thrilling hour-long qualifying session as he saw off his team-mate by just over 0.2 seconds.

The Monaco-based racer came out on top despite his mechanics being forced to work on his car until four o'clock this morning after he went off the track yesterday.

The mechanics were still putting the McLaren Mercedes together as a succession of drivers set quickest times early in the session with rain threatened.

But the rain held off for Coulthard to take top spot from Hakkinen in the dying seconds and turn his mood from anger to joke-making joy.

"I was not happy really because I just didn't know how the car was going to behave," said Coulthard, who won the race in 1998. "It was a nerve-wracking session because I had to find a lot of time.

"That pole lap was a journey into the unknown. Every corner I was wondering if I was going to go off because I was pushing to the limit.

"It would have been so easy to go from being a hero to looking silly, but as I got through each corner my confidence increased. It's really good when you know you have got the most out of the car.

"I feel good about my driving at the moment, though I know I can still get better.

"I am not being distracted by any questions of whether I can do the job, I know I am doing a good job for the team. If they are happy then I am happy."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in