SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, Aug 28 (AFP) - Italian Jarno Trulli claimed his second career pole position on Saturday after a gamble on the weather kept him ahead of Michael Schumacher in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Trulli used standard wet tyres on a drying track to set a time of one min 56.232 secs and flying world champion Schumacher, who could claim his seventh world title this weekend, just failed to better his time after rain fell late in the session.
"It was a gamble. And I have been very lucky with the gamble. I changed tyres right before hitting the track ... and it worked very well for me.
"It was difficult conditions and it was the right time to use those tyres for the one lap. I am very happy with this result," Trulli said.
Renault driver Trulli started from the front in the Monaco Grand Prix in May and went on to claim his maiden victory in the only race that Schumacher has failed to win this year.
Heavy rain has poured on the forested circuit since Friday afternoon but it stopped before qualifying and Renault looked to have secured a one-two when Spaniard Fernando Alonso put his car just behind Trulli in second place.
But Schumacher displayed the advantage his car has given him this year when he mastered his favourite track in worsening conditions to finish just 0.072 seconds slower on a much wetter track.
"We are in the first row, second position, and with the conditions we can be quite happy," said Schumacher.
"It was actually not so fantastic. I struggled a little bit at the top of the hill into turn five, I got a bit sideways and lost the grip there, lost a couple of tenths and then towards the end it got a little bit tricky."
Scot David Coulthard finished fourth fastest in his McLaren with a time 1.758 seconds slower than Trulli while Italian Giancarlo Fisichella claimed fifth place for Sauber.
Rubens Barrichello had looked set to better Trulli's time but made a mistake under braking into the Bus Stop chicane, when he went straight on, and finished down in sixth in the second Ferrari.
Australian Mark Webber put his Jaguar up to seventh, just ahead of the second Sauber of Brazilian Felipe Massa, with Frenchman Olivier Panis, of Toyota, and Finn Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren, completing the top 10.
Toyota's Ricardo Zonta, of Brazil, was the first driver out but only just made his scheduled running slot after his team were forced to frantically repair his car following a high-speed spin in the pre-qualifying session.
He put in a cautious lap but his French team-mate Olivier Panis set the early running before Australian Mark Webber stepped up the pace with a time of one min 58.729 secs to go top.
Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, who crashed at the Rivage corner in practice on Saturday morning, failed to push as hard as he should and finished 2.718 seconds down on Webber's effort in his Williams.
The drying track left the teams with a difficult decision over whether to choose extreme rain tyres or standard wets and BAR-Honda pair Takuma Sato and Jenson Button both struggled on the extreme wets.
Trulli was the first driver to go for standard wet tyres and he set a lap of one min 56.232 secs to go 2.497 secs faster than Webber. Alonso failed to improve after losing half a second in the final sector and finished second. And then the rain began to fall again.
Montoya gambled on standard wet tyres but that failed to pay off and he finished 3.449 secs off the lead pace to put him sixth with five runners left to hit the track.
Only Ferrari could come close to the Renaults in the worsening conditions but Barrichello made a mistake and Schumacher was also slow in the Bus Stop chicane and lost vital tenths on his flying lap.
Schumacher had set the quickest time in pre-qualifying when he set a time of one min 53.755 secs to finish more than a second faster than Barrichello with Raikkonen, the last man on the track, in third.
The drivers enjoyed two trouble-free dry practice sessions on Friday but had just 15 minutes of wet running on Saturday morning after low fog prevented the medical helicopter from taking off and forced the sessions to be shortened.