MONTREAL: Michael Schumacher made sure of his first pole position of the season today in a blistering Qualifying session for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix. Reigning champion Mika Hakkinen of Finland, who had placed his McLaren on pole for the last five Grands Prix, joined the German Ferrari driver on the front row of the grid after a flying lap in the final minute.Schumacher, the 1994 and 1995 World Champion, set an early fastest lap of one minute and 19.298 seconds midway through the hour and then relaxed as his rivals attempted in vain to go faster than him. Hakkinen came closest, edging Briton Eddie Irvine in the second Ferrari off the front row at the last minute. Irvine will start third ahead of fellow-Briton David Coulthard in the second McLaren.

The top four were only separated by four-tenths of a second at the end of a closely-fought session run in hot conditions in front of a near-capacity 80,000 crowd.

Minister denies asking Arjuna toquit

COLOMBO: Sri lanka's sports minister SB Dissanayake has denied reports that he asked Arjuna Ranatunga to step down as captain after the defending champions' poor showing in the World Cup, ministry officials said today.Newspaper reports quoted Dissanayake as telling BBC Ranatunga had made several errors of judgment which led to the team's exit. ``He got many things wrong in the tournament. He made very bad decisions, so it is time for him to step down,'' Dissanayake was quoted as saying.

``The minister vehemently denies making any statements against Ranatunga on the BBC programme,'' the spokesman said.

BBC officials in Sri Lanka were not immediately available for comment.

-- Agencies