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2005 French GP
Team Quotes - Saturday 2 July
Jean Todt: "It was a very closely contested qualifying session as can be seen from the fact that the top nine drivers are all within the same second. Thanks to the work we did last week along with Bridgestone, we were in a position to fight for a place in the top three rows. Obviously, there is still a question mark over what fuel load the other drivers were on and we will only have the answer to that tomorrow afternoon. In the race, the key factors will be reliability, consistency of tyre performance, the effectiveness of our strategy and of course, the ability of our drivers."
Ross Brawn: "We looked reasonably competitive over the single lap, which is something we have been working to improve on all season. Today, we were fighting for pole, but we did not quite do it although the fact we were in a position to fight for it was encouraging. Neither driver managed to do a perfect lap, which was a shame. Nevertheless, I think we will be competitive tomorrow when our tyres should work well and deliver consistent performance. The balance of the cars was much better today, but we did not manage to capitalise on that this afternoon, although we seem to have a good race set-up."
Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Takuma Sato will start tomorrow's 70-lap French Grand Prix from the second row of the grid in 4th place, with team-mate Jenson Button in 7th position. Both drivers carried the momentum of a productive morning's work through to good qualifying runs. Takuma's lap was good enough to split the drivers of each of the team's main competitors and he will start tomorrow's race in the thick of the action. Both drivers are feeling confident for an exciting race.
Gil de Ferran: "We are reasonably happy with our qualifying today. Both Taku and Jenson had clean laps and made the most of the car. The weather was quite different today which made for an interesting challenge setting the cars up this morning. If you look at the qualifying times it's easy to see how close everyone is, which should make for a very exciting race tomorrow."
Shuhei Nakamoto: "The track conditions were not so good this morning so we conducted most of our running in the second free practice session when the circuit had started to improve. Taku and Jenson did a very good job to make solid progress with the qualifying and race set-up and we are pleased to achieve such good grid positions as a result. Tomorrow should bring an exciting race and we are hopeful for a strong points finish for both drivers."
The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team took pole position for its home race in Magny-Cours, for the second successive year, during qualifying for tomorrow's French Grand Prix. A mistake-free lap saw World Championship leader Fernando Alonso take his sixth career pole position, giving him the best possible starting point for extending his championship lead in tomorrow's race. Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was on equal terms with the Spaniard until the final sector, where a small mistake cost him three tenths of a second. However, on a grid as tightly packed as that at Magny-Cours, where a mere tenth of a second can cost a number of positions, he finished seventh. However, he will start sixth for tomorrow's race after Raikkonen has served his ten place penalty for an engine change on Friday.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: The grid this afternoon is very close, much as we had expected – and we saw with Giancarlo how a small mistake can prove costly on a single timed lap. We have both cars in the top six for tomorrow, and they were well balanced on the qualifying laps. We expect temperatures tomorrow to be much higher, but the cars are looking after their tyres well, and we do not anticipate this will be a factor during the race. All in all, this gives us a very satisfying starting point for the race.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Operations: It is traditional for the qualifying session at Magny-Cours to prove particularly close-fought, and this was the case once again this afternoon. With this in mind, it is pleasing to be on the front row without having sacrificed any part of our race strategy in favour of qualifying performance. We completed our normal set-up and tuning work this morning in spite of the poor conditions, and results are visible in the performance this afternoon. We know that the car has very strong potential for the race, and with one driver ideally placed, and the other a threatening challenger on the third row, we are optimistic for the Grand Prix.
Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld will both start from the midfield for tomorrow's French Grand Prix, having qualified 13th and 14th respectively today.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): Normally we would have hoped for a better qualifying result. We have made some progress on set-up but we have generally struggled here to get the best out of the car. Now we will see where everyone is once the strategies come into play tomorrow. It looks like it could be quite warm on race day. Our long runs during practice were reasonable so we will be fighting for points tomorrow.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): As early as free practice it became apparent that our team wouldn't be amongst the front runners here this year. The lap times and drivers' comments bore out what was confirmed by today's qualifying result. Now both drivers need to try to improve positions during the race in order to collect a few points for the team. There is nothing special to report from the engine side.
Team McLaren Mercedes driver Juan Pablo Montoya will start tomorrow's race ninth after setting a time of 1:15.406. Kimi's time of 1:14.559 was third fastest, but he has to move down 10 places on the grid following yesterday's engine failure and as a result the Finn's will start from 13th.
Ron Dennis: "Taking into account the necessity for a race strategy designed to accommodate the 10-place penalty resulting from Kimi's engine failure yesterday his qualifying lap was sensational. This together with a good start should see him with a chance to take a podium position tomorrow. Juan Pablo suffered a little from being early out on the circuit and consequential lack of grip, but irrespective of this he too should have a strong race performance."
Norbert Haug: "Considering his strategy Kimi's qualifying lap was very good being one and half tenths from pole time. His engine failure on Friday meant that he has to start from thirteenth place instead of third in tomorrow's race with Juan Pablo in eighth. We have the speed for good results and we can achieve them despite starting from fourth and seventh rows."
Sauber drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve will start tomorrow's French Grand Prix from ninth and 10th positions respectively after this afternoon's qualifying session.
Peter Sauber (Team Principal): "This was a good qualifying session and we have both cars in the top 10 on the grid for the first time in 2005. This is especially satisfying as in the past the Magny-Cours circuit has not always taken a liking to us! Both drivers achieved strong performances that confirm that the upward performance trend of the C24 continues."
After today's qualifying session, David Coulthard and Christian Klien will line up fifteenth and sixteenth respectively on tomorrow's grid, for the start of the French Grand Prix.
Panasonic Toyota Racing Jarno Trulli will start tomorrow's French Grand Prix from the front row after he produced a stunning lap during today's qualifying session. Jarno's time was good enough for 2nd place on a tight grid, his fifth front row slot of the year. Team-mate Ralf Schumacher will line up in 11th place tomorrow. The German was hampered by having to go out first following his practice accident in Indianapolis but he also did well to gain places on the starting grid. Toyota will now head into Sunday's race aiming to make the most of today's results and to get both cars into the points. Fresh from his efforts as Friday test driver here yesterday, Olivier Panis was presented with the car in which he made his final racing appearance for Toyota last year. Olivier raced the TF104/09B at Suzuka last October and he was last night given the ‘keys' so he can now take it back to his Grenoble home.
Jarno Trulli produced yet another storming lap to take 2nd place on the grid for tomorrow's French Grand Prix. The Italian thus keeps up his impressive 2005 qualifying record with his fifth front row slot in ten races.
In the wake of his practice accident in Indianapolis, Ralf Schumacher had to go out first for today's qualifying session. Despite facing the hardest track conditions of all the runners he still managed to jump to 11th on the grid.
Panasonic Toyota Racing will work hard to make the most of Jarno Trulli's front row slot for tomorrow's French Grand Prix. With Ralf Schumacher on the sixth row the team is well set for another double points finish.
Dieter Gass – Chief Race Engineer: "Obviously we are very pleased to have yet another front row position from Jarno. It's happened so often that we have to say that he did his usual lap performance, but it was very good. He looks quite strong for the race as well, especially starting from second. Unfortunately Ralf suffered again from being the first car out. He had a small lock-up on one of his wheels at the Adelaide corner which cost him some time. Without that he would have been in the top ten. So overall we can be very happy with today's work. We are confident with our race strategy so we are looking forward to a very strong race tomorrow."
Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan just completed installation laps in the first session of today due to damp conditions. Monteiro also experienced a gear box issue, which was solved for the last Free Practice, during which the drivers spent time further developing their chassis set-ups for both the afternoon's qualifying session and tomorrow's race. In the afternoon, Karthikeyan and Monteiro qualified in 17th and 19th positions respectively. Both drivers were relatively satisfied with their qualifying lap and the balance of their cars. With the region's unpredictable weather conditions, the team is hopeful of an exciting race.
Adrian Burgess: "Both drivers had good and bad parts about their qualifying lap. Narain had a good first sector but then he made a few mistakes in the middle and recovered in the last one. Tiago was not too bad in the first sector but then he made a mistake in the last corner. I think we are in good shape for tomorrow. As normal, we have concentrated on the race tomorrow and we are reasonably happy with our situation. 
As a result of their fifth and sixth-place finishes in the United States Grand Prix two weeks ago, Minardi F1 Team drivers Christjan Albers and Patrick Friesacher ran 15th and 16th in this afternoon's French Grand Prix qualifying session, and made the most of the track conditions. Both pushed to the maximum on their runs, with Friesacher eventually emerging the quicker of the two, by just over three-tenths of a second. In common with most other drivers, the Minardi duo carried out only a limited amount of running in Saturday's rain-dampened opening practice session, but made up for it in the second, when a drying track surface allowed them to revert to grooved slicks. During the morning sessions, the Faenza squad concentrated on chassis set-up for both qualifying and tomorrow's race.
Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth: "Today Minardi completed all its preparations for Sunday's French Grand Prix, with both cars performing well throughout the practice sessions and qualifying. It's interesting to see that there is really nothing between us and our nearest rival, Jordan, in terms of lap times, and we look forward to an interesting race tomorrow."
Conditions may well have been damp and overcast at the French Magny-Cours circuit today after overnight rain but this did nothing to dampen the optimism for tomorrow's race as Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello qualified in fourth and sixth places. They will in fact start from third and fifth places on the grid after Kimi Raikkonen drops ten places for an engine change. Jordan's Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro and Minardi's Patrick Friesacher and Christijan Albers, meanwhile, will occupy the final two rows of the grid.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: "Unfortunately Ferrari didn't quite make pole today but we were certainly pleased to see both drivers in touch with the front runners and I'm looking forward to seeing the performance of the car-tyre package in the race tomorrow. The first of this morning's practice sessions was still damp from the overnight and early morning rain, resulting in very little running. Of the Bridgestone runners, only Minardi set a few timed runs because conditions were too dry for the wet tyres and too wet for the dry tyres. The teams were able to get some dry tyre running in the next session and we got a glimpse of the potential of our tyre performance in that session. Magny-Cours can be tough because of rear tyre degradation but I think we look in good, competitive shape at the moment. We have good consistency which will benefit all three Bridgestone teams."
Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: "It's rewarding to be reasonably competitive on the first lap, which is something we've been looking to improve all season. We were fighting for pole today, which didn't quite come off, but we were in a position to get pole, which is encouraging. I don't think either driver managed to get a good lap, either because of the car or themselves, but neither put in a perfect lap which is a shame because we had the package today. Nevertheless I think we can be competitive tomorrow, the Bridgestone tyres look nice and consistent and we should have a good race. The balance is better today but we didn't quite catch it in qualifying so we'll need to have a look at that. We didn't get a lot of running this morning so maybe we haven't quite got everything dialed in properly but we'll have a good race."
Fernando Alonso (Renault) will spearhead the Michelin challenge in tomorrow's French Grand Prix after securing his second consecutive Formula One pole position at Magny-Cours. The Spaniard lapped in 1m 14.412s – the fastest time seen at the Nevers track so far this weekend – to pip Jarno Trulli (Toyota/Michelin) by just 0.109s. Kimi Räikkönen (Team McLaren Mercedes) completed an all-Michelin top three, but he has been penalised 10 grid positions in the wake of an unscheduled engine change and will thus line up only 13th.
Alonso's pole is the 92nd in Michelin's illustrious F1 history and maintains the company's 100 per cent record for the season.
Takuma Sato was fifth fastest – and best of the remaining Michelin drivers – ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella, Jenson Button, Juan Pablo Montoya, Felipe Massa, Jacques Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher, Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld, David Coulthard and Christian Klien.
This morning's third free practice session got off to a damp start and only nine drivers completed flying laps. Running on wet-weather tyres, Renault/Michelin drivers Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella set the two fastest times. Fisichella was quickest in the following final free practice, which ended in dry conditions.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director: "Our partners have performed extremely well since the start of the weekend and today's result is a source of great satisfaction for the whole Michelin team.
"This morning's rain affected the track a little. When conditions dried out, lap times weren't particularly slower than before but the circuit became more abrasive, so one or two teams briefly had graining problems although this was to be expected. Conditions have since stabilised and I think we will be in excellent shape for tomorrow's race."
Nick Shorrock, director of Michelin F1 activities: "Our preparations were knocked slightly out of step by this morning's rain, but it was nice to have an opportunity to try our wet-weather products. They performed very well, although it was difficult to make many valid comparisons because relatively few cars did any serious running.
"Our partners have chosen to use three of Michelin's four available dry-weather tyres in tomorrow's race. These all delivered exactly the results we expected in terms of performance and durability. Once again, it was gratifying to see Michelin's tyres working so effectively on a wide variety of chassis."
Bob Bell, technical director (chassis), Renault F1: "Our tyres have performed extremely well this weekend. Michelin brought two very well-chosen compounds, in terms of both performance and durability. They've delivered all we could have asked for."
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