Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello gained the first-ever pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday after Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher spun out seconds into his qualifying lap.

It was the 12th career pole and second straight for Barrichello. He now has three for the season : The US, Italian and Chinese races.

Barrichello recorded a time of 1 minute, 34.012 seconds on the brand-new 5.45km Shanghai International Circuit.

Schumacher spun on the first turn of the new track after leading the pre-qualifying an hour earlier in 1:33.185. He will start in the second to last row in Sunday's 56-lap race in 18th place.

It will be the German's worst starting position as a Ferrari driver. In 1998 he had the pole position for the final race of the season, the Japanese GP, but stalled on the grid and was put to the back of the pack.

In 1995, as a Benetton driver, he was 16th on the grid but went on to win the Belgian Grand Prix.

Midway through the first turn, Schumacher lost control of his Ferrari and spun off the track into the wide gravel area. He went back on the track and completed the lap but failed to record a time.

The 2004 champion said the cause of the spin was not known.

"It's the first time it's happened to me. We need to find the explanation for it which we haven't done yet," he said. "The good thing is that we have all the cars in the Ferrari sandwich, one is in front one is in the back."

Schumacher would have been in the back row, but Takuma Sato of BAR-Honda blew an engine in practice and was sent ten places back in the grid to 19th place.

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