Try as he might, Schumacher could not match Montoya

Schumacher had three attempts at beating Montoya and although he edged closer, he could not pull out enough to snatch pole.

He got to within 0.3secs on his first attempt and then set a 1:13.018 on his third run before backing off on his last attempt because it had started to rain.

Montoya said: "My qualifying lap was really good. We thought it was going to rain so we went out early. It is going to be an interesting race."

Schumacher said he believed he could have beaten Montoya if he had put together his best performance.

"I am a little bit disappointed not to have been able to fight for pole right at the end. We might have been able to get pole - if you look at my sector times, we were very close but just didn't get it together.

"On my third run, which was my fastest one, I lost some time in the first sector. I knew where I had lost it and why, so I was optimistic for my last run, but then came the rain."

Local hero

Arguably the most impressive performance in qualifying came from Jordan-Honda driver Giancarlo Fisichella, who hauled his previously recalcitrant car up into sixth place.

That was ahead of Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld and the second McLaren of David Coulthard.

The BAR team's hopes of an improved performance were only partially realised.

Coulthard had a terrible session, ending up eighth on the grid

BAR, who use the same Honda engines as Jordan, brought a revised car to Montreal with improved aerodynamics and were hoping to get both of their drivers into the top 10.

Local hero Jacques Villeneuve qualified the car in ninth place, but team-mate Olivier Panis was squeezed down into 11th by Renault's Jarno Trulli, who rounded out the top 10.

Jenson Button had a disappointing session, finishing up in 13th place, just ahead of a better-than-usual showing by Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine.

Fisichella's rookie team-mate Takuma Sato was 15th after suffering a spectacular engine failure.