David Coulthard will no doubt remain the darling of the British Press a while longer after qualifying on pole for the European Grand Prix.

The Scot, now dubbed a hero after finishing second in Spain just days after a near-fatal plane crash, shook off rivals Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen to take pole. "I am obviously really happy to be on pole position," he said. "Tomorrow is another day but I aim to be the first driver to win from pole position this year."

Benson and Hedges Jordan drivers had mixed results. In a tightly fought qualifying session interrupted by rain showers, Trulli took sixth place. Frentzen qualified a disppointing 10th; he was lying third after his first run, but his chances of maintaing this position were ruined by Jos Verstappen, who blocked Frentzen on his second flying lap. Rain fell immediately after, giving the German driver no chance to improve his position.

“The car was perfect today and I could have done really well," said an angry Frentzen. "In fact I believe we were capable of being on the third row of the grid. But ‘would’ or ‘could’ does not get me a good grid position. Things went wrong in my second run when someone did not bother looking in the mirror and destroyed my chances of a good lap. Once it started to rain it was impossible to improve my lap time. As a result, I was not able to realise the full potential of my car today which is very frustrating”

A happier Jarno Trulli said, "I am happy with the job we did today. The car felt really good and it is just a shame we did not finish even higher – we were certainly capable of it. My second run felt very good but the last two corners were wet so I lost a few tenths. The end of the session was crazy, with all the cars out on the track, but I improved my time which was a good effort; in fact I think I was one of very few drivers who made a better time. The car had more potential but the weather conditions meant I could not realise that potential. Tomorrow should be a very interesting race and I am confident the car will run well. I believe we could even have a chance to finish on the podium. I finished on the podium here last year and I would love to do the same again this year for Jordan.”

It was announced later in the afternoon that Nick Heidfeld will start the race from the back of the grid after his car was found to be under weight.

Jordan


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