Barrichello

SPIELBERG, Austria -- Rubens Barrichello won the pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday, and Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher had his worst qualifying of the season, settling for third.

Barrichello turned a lap of 1 minute, 8.082 seconds on the 2.688-mile circuit to win his second pole of the year.

Ralf Schumacher, the younger brother of Michael, qualified second at 1:08.364 in his BMW-Williams.

Four-time world champion and points leader Michael Schumacher will start from the second row after a time of 1:08.704. Schumacher, who has had three poles and two seconds in qualifying, has won four of five races this season.

Schumacher, who leads the drivers' standings by 21 points over Juan Pablo Montoya (44-23), has never won on the Austrian circuit.

Montoya, using the spare BMW-Williams, was fourth in 1:09.118.

Ferrari cars dominated the practice, with Barrichello turning the quickest lap on Friday, and Schumacher posting the fastest lap in the morning session before the qualifying.

"In Imola and Barcelona, it was close between us and Michael beat me," Barrichello said. "This time, I said to myself, 'not today' and tried even harder.

"At the moment, we are such a good team that if one of us is not on the pole the other should be able to do it."

Both Ferrari drivers had several spins off the course, and Schumacher finished the qualifying in the spare car.

Barrichello, who has one victory and five career poles, nearly crashed into the slow Toyota of Mika Salo of Finland in his last lap. He had to swerve hard and ended up in the gravel.

"I had to," Barrichello said. "I was doing 300 and I thought there would be a big crash. There was a lot of traffic."

Michael Schumacher was more than seven-tenths of a second faster than Barrichello in the morning's practice. In the qualifying, the Brazilian was quicker.

"It's a bit unusual. I don't know the reason but we will investigate," Schumacher said. "The car just wasn't performing, it just wasn't fast enough. There wasn't anything specifically wrong, it just wasn't there.

"But in all honesty, Rubens did a very good job."

Schumacher had his fastest lap in the spare Ferrari, but couldn't get ahead of his teammate.

"When you have run in a car all weekend and then you step into a new one, it's never quite right," Schumacher said.

The qualifying session had to be stopped after Jarno Trulli of Italy blew the engine of his Renault and skidded off the course, leaving oil on the circuit.

After a 10-minute break, Barrichello claimed the lead.

Michael Schumacher, who had not driven before the break, failed to beat Barrichello's time in his first attempt and also slipped off the track.

Montoya had technical problems with his car and had to switch to the spare, which he said did not work properly at the start.

"It was set up for Ralf and there was not enough time to change everything back and I found it difficult to drive," Montoya said. "After all the trouble I had today, this is a pretty good result."

Ralf Schumacher is the only driver, other than his brother, to win a race this season.

Nick Heidfeld of Germany was fifth in 1:09.129 in a Sauber-Petronas, and Kimi Raikkonen of Finland was sixth in a McLaren-Mercedes in 1:09.154. Felipe Massa of Brazil was seventh in 1:09.228.

In another disappointing qualifying for McLaren, Britain's David Coulthard, the defending champion, was eighth, 1.253 seconds behind Barrichello.