Home >  Sports >  Auto Racing

Sunday, May 26, 2002

By The Associated Press

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya won the pole position yesterday at the Monaco Grand Prix in his Williams BMW, beating out David Coulthard on the final lap in Monte Carlo.

Montoya weaved through the winding streets of picturesque and hilly Monte Carlo in 1 minute, 16.676 seconds.

His team in the pit broke into wild cheers as Montoya, in Formula One's most prestigious race, finished 0.392 seconds ahead of Coulthard in his McLaren Mercedes.

"We did everything right for the race. But when you think you will win, something happens," said Montoya, who crashed on the second lap in his Monaco debut last year.

German Michael Schumacher, trying to match Aryton Senna's record of five wins at Monaco, will start right behind Montoya on the second row after a third-place time of 1:17.118 in his series-leading Ferrari. He caught something in his eye during his second lap of qualifying. In the pit, he was seen trying to wash it out with eye drops.

Schumacher said he was worried about the performance of the two Williams cars. Besides Montoya's pole performance, Michael's younger brother Ralf finished fourth in 1:17.274. Michael Schumacher, a four-time world champion, has won five of six races this season, igniting complaints that Ferrari success is making Formula One boring.

Other races

Carquest Auto Parts 300: Jeff Green held off hard-charging Greg Biffle on a last-lap duel to win on a hot day that drained the drivers at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Green, who runs sporadically in the Busch series now that he's a full-time Winston Cup driver, inherited the lead when teammate Jay Sauter -- a last-minute substitute for his brother, Johnny -- pitted.

After eight cautions in the first 112 laps, the race had a long green-flag stretch that allowed Johnny Sauter to open a 15-car length lead on the field. But he didn't have enough gas to make it and gave up the lead to Green when he pitted.

Scott Riggs finished third, Mike McLaughlin was fourth, Todd Bodine finished fifth and Kevin Lepage, subbing for Purvis, was sixth. Bobby Hamilton Jr., Kevin Grubb, Sauter and Jack Sprague rounded out the top 10.

NHRA Summer Nationals: Larry Dixon earned his sixth No. 1 qualifying position of the season, and 18th of his career, at Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kan. Dixon had a quarter-mile run of 4.588 seconds at 320.81 mph to lead the Top Fuel category.

Bruce Sarver and Jim Yates also led their divisions in the $1.8 million competition. Sarver topped the Funny Car category with a 4.862 pass at 304.39, and Yates took his second top qualifying spot in a row with a pass of 6.853 at 200.20 in Pro Stock.