Imola, Apr 25: Jenson Button beats Michael Schumacher to take pole position for the San Marino Grand Prix. Britain's Jenson Button grabbed his and BAR's first pole position at the San Marino Grand Prix on Saturday (April 24) to end Michael Schumacher's run of qualifying dominance and force the world champion into a mistake. Button lapped Ferrari's home circuit in one minute 19.753 seconds, the fastest time of the weekend, to pip six-times world champion Schumacher by 0.258 of a second. BAR's first pole came before their 87th race after they entered Formula One in 1999.
By a remarkable coincidence, on a weekend when Formula One remembered the death of Brazilian world champion Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994, it was Honda's first pole since Senna in Canada in 1992.


Button's previous best qualifying performance was third at Spa in Belgium for Williams in his 2000 debut season. Ferrari's Schumacher had been on pole for the first three races of the season, which he has also won.


Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya was third fastest in a Williams, outqualifying his team mate Ralf Schumacher, and sharing the second row of the grid with Ferrari's Brazilian Rubens Barrichello. Ralf Schumacher, Michael's younger brother who won at Imola in 2001 for Williams, was fifth quickest and starts alongside Renault's Spanish charger Fernando Alonso.


Button's team mate at BAR, Takuma Sato of Japan, filled the fourth row with Australian Mark Webber in a Jaguar.

Bureau Report