Juan Pablo Montoya took the fifth pole position of his career here at Monaco with the Williams-BMW FW24 ahead of David Coulthard's McLaren-Mercedes while Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F2002 was third, off the front row for only the second time so far this season.

Technical: No changes to the cars for today.

Sporting: Montoya had a clear run and found that the Michelin tyres worked extremely well on this tight circuit, but Ralf Schumacher's first run was spoiled when he was balked by Heinz-Harald Frentzen and admitted he didn't use his tyres to best effect on his final run.

Quotes: Montoya: "The car has been good from the start and we improved this morning, followed by another couple of changes for qualifying. I was very lucky and got a clear lap at the end."

Technical: No changes to the cars for today.

Sporting: Coulthard had a good run after being briefly held up by traffic earlier in the session. Raikkonen crashed at Ste Devote this morning, removing the left front wheel and the car was damaged when hooked onto the rescue crane by its roll-hoop. Raikkonen then switched to his spare, then suffered a problem with an over-full oil tank during the afternoon. He switched to Coulthard's spare MP4/17 to post his eventual grid time.

Quotes: Coulthard: "This track suits our car better than some and the Michelin tyres were working very well here. We don't know how the car is going to develop through the season, but this has to be our best chance so far."

Technical: Schumacher had a new chassis (221) brought in for today.

Sporting: Michael aborted his first lap after a cloud of oil smoke alerted him to what he mistakenly thought was an on-track incident. He was balked by Montoya on his second run and then had two clean final runs, despite suffering with some dust in his left eye. Barrichello complained that he could not get a clear run after his first attempt. Both Ferrari drivers both tried two runs on scrubbed front tyres and new rears.

Quotes: Barrichello: "If I'd got a quick run I don't know whether I would have managed pole, but I certainly think I could have made the front row."

Technical: No changes to the cars for today.

Sporting: Trulli was delighted with the handling balance of his car but said most of his runs were badly spoiled by traffic. Button, by contrast, was not so happy with the handling of his car and admitted to a slight mistake on his third run.

Quotes: Trulli: "The car was really very well balanced and no problem at all."

Technical: No changes to the cars for today.

Sporting: McNish admitted to glancing a guard rail early in the session which knocked the front suspension slightly out of line while Salo reported that his TF102 felt much better balanced than it had during Thursday free practice.

Quotes: Gustav Brunner: "We are very pleased with this very good performance from both drivers."

Technical: No changes to the cars for today.

Sporting: Fisichella admitted that he expected to be in the top ten, so eleventh overall was not too bad. Sato crashed at Ste Devote during the morning session and had trouble adjusting the set-up to suit the changing track conditions during qualifying.

Quotes: Fisichella: "I was the third fastest Bridgestone runner after the two Ferraris, which I think says a great deal."

Technical: Revised rear suspension on Frentzen's car only today.

Sporting: Frentzen did not manage a clear run although he reported that the car was nicely balanced through qualifying. Bernoldi found it difficult to get to grips with the circuit.

Quotes: Frentzen: "A little disappointing as I was aiming to qualify here in the top ten which I think the car is capable of."

Technical: No changes to the cars for today.

Sporting: Massa said that the balance and grip were not too bad, but felt that he hadn't got any lucky breaks in traffic. Heidfeld reported that his C21 simply didn't have the same level of grip he'd enjoyed during the morning session.

Quotes: Heidfeld: "It's true that I got blocked on a couple of my runs, but even so I wasn't happy with the way the car was going."

Technical: No changes to the cars for today.

Sporting: Villeneuve continued to complain that the BAR 004 did not work well on new rubber, but performed reasonably well throughout on scrubbed tyres. Panis complained of much the same problem but was also frustrated by the impossibility of getting a clear lap.

Quotes: Panis: "This is a particularly disappointing performance on the track where I scored my only Grand Prix win."

Technical: No changes to the cars for today.

Sporting: Webber used the repaired PS02 which had been rebuilt after his crash on Thursday. Yoong crashed his car at Ste Devote on his first flying lap this afternoon and then had to take the spare car which was set up for Webber.

Quotes: Webber: "We've had a busy weekend and are hoping for a trouble-free race."

Technical: No changes to the cars for today.

Sporting: Irvine crashed heavily at the swimming pool during the morning due to a left rear suspension breakage and used the spare car this afternoon. De la Rosa no mechanical problems.