took his second pole position of the season, and the 12th of his career with a time of 1 minute and 17.430 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Michael Schumacher who was 0.201 seconds slower after aborting his first timed lap because Bernoldi caught him off guard exiting the tunnel and he lost a tenth of a second by glancing the left-hand side at Le Portier turn. Häkkinen changed his car's set-up for a final timed run but it gave him excess understeer and a lack of front grip, leaving him third. Fourth-placed Barrichello worked with his engineers following the final practice session to improve his car's performance; he flat-spotted his front-right tyre at Sainte Devote turn. Ralf Schumacher was the best of the Michelin tyre runners in fifth after Jenson Button of the Benetton team impeded his final timed lap. Sixth-placed Irvine was delayed on his third timed lap and braked early for the Novelle Chicane. Montoya was seventh in his first appearance at Monaco since the 1998 International Formula 3000 Championship. Trulli secured eighth from losing about two-tenths of a second due to a slower car baulking him. Villeneuve qualified ninth and Fisichella in tenth added more front wing angle to create a balanced car. Alesi was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten; he improved on each of his timed laps and made contact with a barrier in the tunnel. Panis in 12th went too quickly at the Piscine chicane on his last lap. Frentzen in 13th spun at Portier corner before the entrance of the tunnel, and he abandoned his car because the constricting barriers left him with little room to recover. De La Rosa was 14th, followed by Räikkönen in 15th, who encountered an abundance of traffic and a waved yellow flag on his final timed lap. His Sauber teammate Heidfeld had an unrectifiable electronic throttle problem on his second timed lap and he took the team's spare car to qualify 16th. Car problems as well as his engine's lack of horsepower created handling balance difficulties and traffic left Button in 17th. Alonso began ahead of both the Arrows cars and Burti's Prost in 18th. Marques, 22nd, had excess oversteer. Qualifying classification Warm-up A 30-minute warm-up session was held on Sunday morning in dry weather. Coulthard led the session with a 1-minute and 20.944 seconds lap, ahead of