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FERNANDO ALONSO (Spain) took the first pole position of his Formula One motor racing career yesterday as Renault swept the front row and ended Michael Schumacher's reign as king of the Malaysian Grand Prix grid.
The other action was provided from off the track by BAR-Honda team-mates Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneuve who indulged in a ferocious slanging match at Sepang.
While the stakes are lower than the famous feuds between Mansell and Piquet or Senna and Prost - where the world title was often at stake - Button and Villeneuve's spat has been no less entertaining.
MOTORSPORT
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FERNANDO ALONSO (Spain) took the first pole position of his Formula One motor racing career yesterday as Renault swept the front row and ended Michael Schumacher's reign as king of the Malaysian Grand Prix grid.
Ferrari's five-times world champion arrived at the Sepang circuit as the only driver to have started on pole position in Malaysia after setting the fastest time in qualifying for the past four years.
But race strategy now plays an important part in the process, with teams banned from refuelling between qualifying and today's start and carrying different fuel loads.
Renault's showing caused a sensation.
Alonso set a fastest time of 1m 37.044s, 0.173 faster than Italian team-mate Jarno Trulli, with Schumacher an unexpected third in 1:37.393.
The 21-year-old Spaniard, tipped by some as a successor to Schumacher, had not scored a point before this season after racing for Minardi in 2001 and taking a year out in 2002 as Renault test driver.
McLaren's world championship leader David Coulthard will start alongside Schumacher on the second row, with Ferrari's Brazilian Rubens Barrichello filling the third row with Germany's Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld.
Schumacher's younger brother Ralf, winner last year ahead of Colombian team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya, provided another shock with the 17th fastest time ahead of only the two Minardis and British rookie Ralph Firman in the Jordan.
Montoya was eighth fastest.
The other action was provided from off the track by BAR-Honda team-mates Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneuve who indulged in a ferocious slanging match at Sepang.
While the stakes are lower than the famous feuds between Mansell and Piquet or Senna and Prost - where the world title was often at stake - Button and Villeneuve's spat has been no less entertaining.
Button branded former world champion Villeneuve "pathetic" after the Canadian described the young Briton as weak and two-faced.
Villeneuve's outburst was in response to criticisms levelled at him by Button following the pit-stop fiasco in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Villeneuve later apologised for his blunder down under - he pitted on the wrong lap and came in at the same time as Button - but was outraged when his team-mate lashed him in a British newspaper column.
"I was very, very disappointed to be blasted by my team-mate when coming out of the car he was all smiles and handshakes," Villeneuve fumed.
"I found that a little bit weak but that's what I have to cope with now, a weak team-mate."
Button, who had earlier attempted to strike a conciliatory note by saying the affair was finished, exploded when told of Villeneuve's remarks.
"The things he said are just pathetic, but that's Jacques, it's the way he is," Button said.
Button made a point of a different sort when he qualified ninth on the grid for today's race after a lap of 1:38.073, 0.216s ahead of Villeneuve who placed 12th.
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Caption: Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya has wife Connie watching over him as he prepares for today's Malaysian Grand Prix. Photo: Reuters
Copyright Independent Newspapers, Ltd. Mar 23, 2003