Indianapolis: Michael Schumacher easily won the pole at the US Grand Prix with a dominating performance on Saturday that was impressive even for the seven-time Formula One champion.
The German's top lap of 1 minute, 10.832 seconds was nearly a full second faster than the top time of runner-up Felipe Massa, his Ferrari teammate, and nearly two seconds better than the fifth-place time of reigning F1 champion and current series leader Fernando Alonso, whose best lap was 1:12.449.
"I'm very surprised about the amount," Schumacher said with a grin.
"To be almost a second ahead of the rest is a lot and that far in front of Alonso. I'd rather give up something here, maybe win (the pole) by a tenth (of a second) and use the rest for other races. But this just shows when things are optimum for us, that's what we can do."
Schumacher's commanding performance came with the same car and engine combination that he used at last week's Canadian Grand Prix, when he was about two-tenths of a second slower than Alonso.
Alonso, who has won five poles and six of nine races this season, including the last four, goes into Sunday's race with a 25-point lead over second-place Schumacher with half of the season's 18 races left to run.
Sunday's race on the 2.6-mile, 13-turn Indy road circuit is the last in a seven-year contract between F1 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and speedway officials each said this week they hope to continue the event.
Negotiations are planned in the next few weeks and a good crowd and a competitive show on Sunday certainly wouldn't hurt, particularly in the wake of last year's debacle in which all 14 cars on Michelin tires withdrew moments before the start because of what they perceived as a safety problem.
Schumacher won that race easily, beating the other five entries on Bridgestone tires, but many in the crowd estimated at 125,000 didn't bother to stick around for the checkered flag.
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To try to win back American fans, Michelin paid for refunds to ticket holders and bought and distributed 20,000 tickets for Sunday's race.
"The enthusiasm we have seen so far this week has been very gratifying," Schumacher said.
"I think the American fans will be here on Sunday and it is our job to give them a good show. I hope I will help do that."
It should never come as a surprise, though, when Schumacher leads the way at Indy, a place where he has won four of the first six F1 races, including the last three.
This is also his fourth pole, but his first since 2002.
After hanging on to finish second in Canada, Schumacher hopes to use his pole position to help cut into Alonso's overall lead.
"Last week, we were trying only to minimize the damage, and this one is to have a good feeling for a victory and to minimize the points as much as possible," he said.
"This can be an important race to achieve that, to (cut) down the gap."
Giancarlo Fisichella, Alonso's teammate, was third, followed by Honda's Rubens Barichello and Alonso, who has not finished better than 15th in three previous Indy starts.
"I did the maximum possible today," Alonso said.
"In the end, we were adding front wing during qualifying to get a better balance, but it was still difficult to drive and cost me time."
"The Grand Prix tomorrow will be a long one so, hopefully, the strategy will work well of us and help me gain positions. I will be aiming for the podium and trying to limit the damage in the championship."
Scott Speed, a rookie and the only American in the F1 field, drew big cheers from the crowd each time his name was mentioned.
The 23-year-old Californian did make it through the first of three phases of qualifying, when the six slowest drivers were eliminated.
He failed to get through the second session, but said he was satisfied with being 16th overall.
"I'm convinced we need to have more races in America because we seem to have better luck in qualifying," Speed said.
"This was the first time in several races that I didn't run into traffic. Starting this far up the grid, I think we've got a great opportunity for points."
Speed, the first American to race in F1 since Michael Andretti in 1993, earned his first and only F1 point with an eighth-place finish in Australia, but later had it taken away when he was penalized 25 seconds and moved down to ninth for passing under a yellow flag.
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