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EXCLUSIVE TACH COVERAGE

Monaco Grand Prix

Monaco Qualifying Schumacher's Monaco Magic!!

Andrew Frankl European Bureau Chief

Only the late Ayrton Senna could have produced the sort of driving we had the honour and pleasure witnessing Saturday afternoon in this tiny but fascinating Principality.

Fascinating because the partying, the drinking, the roulette wheels all came to a stop for a while giving the place over to the one hour qualifying session which is the nearest thing to a shoot-out at the OK Corral.

Make no mistake, it was for real. Hill and the others were not using guns they were using 700 horsepower projectiles instead and how! Time after time the situation changed, at one point the two McLarens were occupying the top positions, a few minutes and some heroic driving later it was Damon Hill who looked most likely to clinch the all important pole position. It was not to be. As the British driver later admitted he went out too soon giving Schumacher a chance for a last minute do or die effort. How the double world champion was able to throw the Ferrari around without touching the guard-rails only he knows.

The tyres were smoking, the whole car seemed to be on the very limit of adhesion-which it most certainly was-but Schumi kept it on the road to clinch pole position ahead of Hill by more than half a second-an eternity in Grand Prix Racing.

Afterwards we asked Michael about his demon lap. He thought the engine was delivering more power than before, the brakes have been improved and the track was clear when he needed it most. As it is virtual impossible to overtake here a clear qualifying run is vital. Had he caught up one of the slower cars at one of the hairpins Hill would have claimed the coveted No 1 spot. It really is as simple as that. Schumacher did make one big mistake which he readily admitted later, on his slowing down lap he started to waive to the crowd and was not really concentrating on his driving. He came out of the tunnel quite slowly not realising that Gerhard Berger was on a flyer behind him. Even though he did spot Gerhard at the last minute and got out of the way, by then the Austrian had locked up and was lucky not to hit the guard-rail.

Jean Alesi produced the best performance of the season for Benetton, his third place is certainly encouraging for tomorrow's race. His team mate Berger is alongside him on the second row, I just hope for a clean start which would be the nearest thing to a miracle judging by what happened last year for instance when several cars crashed within 100 yards of the green light. David Coulthard did well to qualify fifth and Barrichello's 6th place is equally impressive.

The most amazing thing is that at all three speed traps Martin Brundle was fastest in the Jordan-Peugeot and yet at the end of the day he was back in an astonishing 16th place. The one big question mark concerns the weather. The forecast is not promising and should it rain the whole race will become what this place is renowned for-a gamble.