Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya rediscovered his qualifying form to seize pole position for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix in Monza this afternoon.
Montoya, who had a run of five successive poles midway through the season, took top spot for Williams-BMW from Ferrari's world champion Michael Schumacher.
The 26-year-old claimed his seventh pole of the campaign and the 10th of his career by over 0.2 seconds from Schumacher whose brother Ralf was third fastest in his Williams.
Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello posted the fourth quickest time from the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen who outqualified team-mate David Coulthard for the 10th time in 15 attempts as the Scot finished seventh.
But there was joy for Eddie Irvine whose sixth spot was his highest of the season for Jaguar Racing and perfectly timed as he is yet to formally announce which team he will drive for next season.
Toyota's Allan McNish finished in 13th spot while Jenson Button was 17th for Renault - his worst starting slot of the campaign.
The qualifying session had to stopped just under three minutes before the scheduled finish when Jordan's Takuma Sato rammed into a rear tyre of Raikkonen.
Sato, whose place at Jordan could be taken by Irvine, was sent skidding into the gravel and smashing into a tyre barrier while Raikkonen also found the dirt but missed the tyres.
Five-time champion Schumacher was a spectator when the session resumed for the final few minutes as the Williams duo battled it out for pole.
The German's brother tried to get past Montoya and find a clear road as the duo led those drivers who still had laps left out of the pits.
But Schumacher could not get past and had to settle for third place as Montoya again proved he has few equals when it comes to qualifying.
PA