Schumacher keeps Ferrari on pole

World champion Michael Schumacher swept to pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday to underline Ferrari’s Formula One supremacy. The German secured the 57th pole of his career, second in a row and fifth in Malaysia since the first race at Sepang in 1999, with a lap of one minute 33.074 seconds.

Sunday’s race could spring surprises but qualifying will have filled Ferrari’s rivals with foreboding as they fight to turn a red tide that threatens to swamp the championship as surely as it did in 2002. Ominously, for those hoping for signs of resistance, the German was 0.641 seconds faster than the man alongside him on the front row — Jaguar’s ever-improving Australian Mark Webber.

“We just got it spot on,” said Schumacher, now just eight poles away from the Formula One record set by the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna. “We put pressure on the opposition but tomorrow will be a battle.It’s going to be hard work in the heat but, other than that, I don’t have any particular worries.”

Sunday will be Webber’s first front row start of his Formula One career and, whatever the relative fuel loads, he relegated Schumacher’s Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello to the second row. (Reuters)