Gp Title At Stake

With the world drivers’ championship at stake, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve battled for, and won, front-row positions for the European Grand Prix.

Competition was so intense that three drivers - Villeneuve, Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen - drove the 2.751-mile course in the same time to the thousandth of a second: 1 minute, 21.072 seconds.

Because Villeneuve was the first to turn his lap in 121.072, he got the pole position for today’s race, with Schumacher alongside on the front row and Frentzen on the inside position on the second row.

Villeneuve, who has never won the drivers championship, must finish ahead of Schumacher in one of the first six point-scoring positions today to win the championship.