McLarens in Front in Italy

The McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team appears ready to disappoint Ferrari’s home fans once again.

Defending world champion Mika Hakkinen claimed his third consecutive pole position, edging teammate David Coulthard by 22 thousandths of a second in qualifying Saturday for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Italy.

The two McLaren-Mercedes drivers beat the heat and the rival Ferraris to give the British-German team a full front-row start today in the third event of the Formula One season.

Michael Schumacher put his Ferrari in the second row of the starting grid, alongside teammate and current standings leader Eddie Irvine. The Italian team hasn’t won this race since 1983.

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Juan Montoya, winner of the Long Beach Grand Prix in only his third CART race, continued to prove he is a fast learner. Montoya, a 23-year-old Colombian, won the pole for today’s CART Bosch Grand Prix at Nazareth, Pa., with a fast lap of 173.755 mph. . . . Jim Epler earned the first No. 1 qualifying position of his NHRA funny car career in the Pennzoil Nationals at Dinwiddie, Va. Epler covered the Virginia Motorsports Park quarter-mile in 4.933 seconds at 304.19 mph in a Chevrolet Corvette. . . . Timothy Vouaux, 42, a pit crew chief working at the Tri-City Motor Speedway in Williams Township, Mich., died Saturday morning after two cars collided during a race Friday and spun into the guardrail where he was standing, police said. . . . Sun Valley’s Greg Pursley won his second NASCAR Super Late Model race of the season, overtaking A.J. Dimarzo on lap 21 of 50, before 3,654 at Irwindale Speedway. Rod Johnson holds onto the points lead despite a seventh-place finish. Dimarzo stays second in the points, 28 behind Johnson.