NUERBURGRING (Germany), June 22: Juan Pablo Montoya seized his third straight pole position on Saturday as Williams relegated Ferrari to the second row of the starting grid at the European Grand Prix Formula One race.

The Colombian fired in a quick lap of one minute 29.906 seconds to push German team mate Ralf Schumacher off the top spot with 12 minutes to go in a qualifying session brought forward to prevent a clash with World Cup soccer.

Ralf, who had looked a good bet for pole until then, was just nine thousandths of a second slower than Montoya.

It was Montoya’s fourth pole in nine races and the seventh of his career.

Michael Schumacher, Ralf’s older brother and Ferrari’s four-times Formula One world champion, was third fastest in 1:30.035 alongside his Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello.

McLaren filled the third row .

Grid: 1.Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) Williams-BMW, one minute 29.906 seconds (206.055 km/h); 2.Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Williams-BMW 1:29.915; 3.Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari 1:30.035; 4.Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Ferrari 1:30.387; 5.David Coulthard (Britain) McLaren-Mercedes 1:30.550; 6.Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) McLaren-Mercedes 1:30.591; 7.Jarno Trulli (Italy) Renault 1:30.927; 8.Jenson Button (Britain) Renault 1:31.136; 9.Nick Heidfeld (Germany) Sauber-Petronas 1:31.211; 10.Mika Salo (Finland) Toyota 1:31.389; 11.Felipe Massa (Brazil) Sauber-Petronas 1:31.733; 12.Olivier Panis (France) BAR-Honda 1:31.906; 13.Allan McNish (Britain) Toyota 1:31.941; 14.Takuma Sato (Japan) Jordan-Honda 1:31.999; 15.Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Germany) Arrows-Cosworth 1:32.144; 16.Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) Jaguar-Cosworth 1:32.281; 17.Eddie Irvine (Britain) Jaguar-Cosworth 1:32.510; 18.Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Jordan-Honda 1:32.591; 19.Jacques Villeneuve (Canada) BAR-Honda 1:32.968; 20.Mark Webber (Australia) Minardi-Asiatech 1:32.996; 21.Enrique Bernoldi (Brazil) Arrows-Cosworth 1:33.360; 22.Alex Yoong (Malaysia) Minardi-Asiatech 1:34.251—Reuters