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2005 Hungary GP
Team Quotes - Saturday 30 July
First pole position of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, set by Michael Schumacher. For the 179th time a Scuderia driver has set the fastest time in qualifying, the seventh at this circuit. Michael starts from pole for the 64th time in his career, the seventh at the Hungaroring.
Jean Todt: We had forgotten what pole position tasted like and today, we can savour it again thanks to an extraordinary lap from Michael. This result makes us very happy and is the reward for the vast amount of work carried out over the last few months by the team along with our friends at Bridgestone. Rubens' seventh place is also a good result, given that his time is very close to that of the cars ahead of him. Now we face the toughest task of the weekend, namely the race. As usual, reliability, strategy and the consistency of tyre performance will play key roles. For our part, as usual, we will give it our all. A good result would be important for the morale of the team and all our fans.
Ross Brawn: I am absolutely delighted with this performance as it has been a hard year for us. Everyone, particularly Bridgestone, has kept working and we could see from the beginning of the weekend that we have a very strong tyre here and we have had the proof of that today. It proves we never gave up and we will do our best to repeat today's performance tomorrow in the race. Of course, this is not just down to the tyres. We have had some updates to the aero package over the last few races and they have also contributed to this result.
BAR Honda drivers Jenson Button and Takuma Sato will line up on the 4th and 5th rows of the grid for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix after posting the 8th and 10th fastest times of this afternoon's qualifying session.
It's all change in the running order as some interesting strategies clearly came into play at the Hungaroring, where the track temperature peaked at a scorching 51°C. As such, it's difficult to know how tomorrow's 70-lap race will shape up but both Jenson and Takuma are happy with the balance of the BAR Honda 007's after a solid morning's progress and the team is eager to pick up where it left off last weekend in Germany.
Gil de Ferran: "We are reasonably happy with our qualifying slots and both drivers had good clean laps. We suspect there are different strategies at play in the front half of the field, therefore it is hard to draw any definite conclusions. The cars are fairly well-balanced and we hope our homework will pay good dividends tomorrow."
Shuhei Nakamoto: "The drivers did a good job in very hot weather conditions. This morning we continued the good set-up work from yesterday and achieved a lot of solid preparation for the qualifying session. This afternoon, Takuma lost a bit of time in the second sector but both drivers performed well against our expectations for today. We'll have to see how the various strategies unfold tomorrow but I am looking forward to a strong race for us."
A disappointing afternoon for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team in qualifying for the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix. After qualifying laps in which both Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella failed to extract the car's full potential, they will start sixth and ninth respectively in tomorrow's race. Although the handling balance of the R25 has not been perfect through the weekend, the car nevertheless demonstrated enough innate speed to have qualified on the first two rows. As ever, the team expects to be more competitive in race conditions, but on a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult, both drivers expect a difficult afternoon's work in the race.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: A disappointing qualifying session for the team. Fernando lost four grid positions in the final corner, while Giancarlo also missed out on a position by just three hundredths of a second. As always, we feel confident in our race pace and the preparations we have made for the race tomorrow, which will certainly be run in extremely hot conditions. We are looking forward to a more competitive showing in the Grand Prix than we achieved this afternoon.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Operations: Clearly, sixth and ninth positions on the grid are well below our expectations, but we know that the smallest mistakes can prove costly in qualifying – and we fell victim to that today. Fernando will have the added disadvantage of starting on the dirty side of the track, so all in all, this was not the afternoon we had hoped for. However, we are confident in the preparations we have made for the race and the cars showed encouraging speed on their laps, mistakes aside. The surprise of the afternoon was certainly to see Schumacher on pole by such a margin – which presumably indicates that a range of strategies will be used tomorrow afternoon. We will now concentrate on our race planning, in order to achieve the best results possible from our disappointing grid positions.
The BMW WilliamsF1 Team will start tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix from the 6th and 8th row respectively. Tomorrow's race will be hot and highly reliant on race strategy as overtaking is extremely difficult on the twisty, high downforce circuit.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): So far the improvements that we have brought to the car are working well. We obviously still have some work to do and we will keep pushing hard. Tomorrow it will be interesting to see where the strategies are as it is quite a mixed grid. Temperatures will be high in tomorrow's race, so we are looking at this as well.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): In qualifying, Nick achieved the time we were expecting while Mark suffered from his early starting position. We won't see the true situation until the first stops have happened tomorrow. We hope that at least Nick will be able to finish in the points. We didn't suffer any technical problems in the session.
Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen qualified for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix at Budapest second and fourth on the grid respectively. Juan Pablo set a time of 1:20.779 whilst Kimi's time was 1:20.891.
Ron Dennis: "An outstanding qualifying performance from both drivers. A good start coupled with our race strategy will give Kimi and Juan Pablo every opportunity to have strong races."
Norbert Haug: "A good basis with Juan Pablo on the first and Kimi on the second row. Taking into account that Kimi had a big handicap being out first for his qualifying lap. Juan Pablo's performance was excellent too. We are looking forward to a good race and our target has to be to finish with both cars on the podium." 
Sauber drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve will start tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix from 14th and 15th positions respectively after this afternoon's qualifying session.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): "We arrived at a satisfactory set-up on both cars after the problems we had achieving a good handling balance yesterday, but we lacked qualifying pace. However, we know that we will be in better shape in the race with the strategy that we have chosen."
Although David Coulthard suffered a minor off-track excursion at Turn four in the closing minutes of the last practice session this morning, there was no damage to his RB1. In this afternoon's qualifying session, which was contested in a sweltering air temperature of more than 35C, David and his team-mate Christian Klien set the thirteenth and eleventh fastest time respectively. They will line up in the same positions on tomorrow's grid for the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: Christian drove a strong lap with no real mistakes and got a good time. David was quicker in the first sector, but lost a little bit of a time in the middle section. We're pleased with the strategy we've adopted here and with the performance of both cars today.
Panasonic Toyota Racing will have two cars in the top five at tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix after a storming performance in today's qualifying session. Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher will start from 3rd and 5th places on the grid after both drivers put in scorching laps on another scorching day at the Hungaroring. Jarno faced a tough task, missing out on some of this morning's practice after a fuel system problem. He also had to go out early in the session, but he did well to make up ground. Ralf also turned in a fine performance, ending just over a tenth further back. Toyota will now head into Sunday's race aiming for another points finish from both drivers. The team currently stands in 4th place in the constructors' championship with a total of 57 points.
Jarno Trulli faced a tough qualifying session after missing out on running due to a fuel system problem in the morning's practice. But he turned in a great lap to take 3rd place despite going out early in the session.
Ralf Schumacher put in a fine lap to qualify in 5th place for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix. The performance sets him up for a chance of his fourth straight points finish.
The whole Panasonic Toyota Racing team is looking forward to tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix after putting both drivers into the top five in qualifying.
Dieter Gass – Chief Race Engineer: "We are obviously delighted with today's qualifying performance. We've looked in strong shape throughout the whole weekend and from 3rd and 5th on the grid we are looking forward to a strong race. Jarno obviously had a tough time having to go out so early in the session, particularly after missing out on running this morning. But in the end you could see from Raikkonen that the circuit wasn't quite as bad as we expected at the beginning of the session. In the end both drivers put in strong laps and having them both start from the clean side of the grid is good news for the race. We're confident about our strategy and we'll look to reap more rewards tomorrow."
Jordan Grand Prix drivers, Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro, continued to make good progress with chassis set-up during the final two practice sessions on Saturday and reported better handling. Due to an unscheduled change of engine for Monteiro after the free practice, he will start the race from the back of the grid as he only completed an installation lap in qualifying. With track temperatures rising as high as 50C, Karthikeyan had a clean lap and qualified in 18th position.
Adrian Burgess: First of all, I would like to thank Toyota for showing their faith in joining Jordan and Midland again next year, which will please everybody at the factory and the people here at the circuit. I would also like to welcome on board Johnny Herbert, who will be a welcome breath of fresh air as he is a very experienced and likeable character. There is no doubt that everybody will get on well with him. In practice this morning, we had a small issue with Tiago's engine and had to change our strategy. Narain had a good clean lap and we are happy with our strategy for tomorrow.
Progress continued apace for the Minardi F1 Team today at the Hungaroring, drivers Christijan Albers and Robert Doornbos taking up where they left off at the end of Friday's initial two free practice sessions. After making further chassis adjustments on Saturday morning, both drivers carried out qualifying simulation runs with new tyres fitted to their cars, posting promising lap times in the process. Come the afternoon qualifying session, and Albers put in another committed performance, to secure 17th place on the starting grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix, while brake lock-ups approaching Turn 1 and Turn 12 lost Doornbos time on what was shaping up to be an impressive lap. As a result, he will start 19th in tomorrow's race.
Paul Stoddart, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth: Another strong performance from the Minardi drivers in qualifying saw Christijan ahead of our nearest rivals and Robert split the Jordans after he made a small mistake under braking in the first sector of his qualifying lap. Overall, the team's performance has been strong so far this weekend, and with continuing improvements to the car and a sensible strategy for tomorrow's 20th Hungarian Grand Prix, we are looking forward to the race.
Michael Schumacher drove a thrilling lap in this afternoon's Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session to take pole position for the first this year by a clear margin of 0.897 seconds. Rubens Barrichello set a time of 1 minute 21.158 seconds which will put him on the fourth row of the grid. The Ferrari pair has been looking strong all weekend and it is a welcome return to the top spot for the Bridgestone shod reigning World Champion and the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team after a season-long drought. Minardi's Christijan Albers was next up for the Bridgestone runners, outpacing both his teammate and the two Jordan drivers. As the season has progressed, the two teams have become locked in a battle for position with Narain Karthikeyan next up on the qualifying time sheets ahead of Robert Doornbos and Tiago Monteiro respectively. Unfortunately Monteiro had an engine change prior to qualifying so he chose not to complete a flying lap.
Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport: "An excellent performance from Michael, it's good to see him back on top. We have done a lot of work over the past few months and that has begun to pay off today. It's good to see the latest new compound working well and we hope to see it continue to perform well in the race tomorrow. Rubens will also be starting from a strong position and he should be able to benefit from the car-tyre package as he has been running consistently well all weekend. The Jordan and Minardi drivers have been working hard, too, so I expect them to be pushing the other teams ahead of them. Our tyres have the speed and now I would like to see our teams use that to run a fast, consistent race tomorrow."
Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: "We're obviously delighted with the performance. It's been a hard year and everyone's kept working – particularly Bridgestone. We could see from the beginning of the weekend that we had a very strong tyre and we're seeing the result of it today. It just shows we didn't give up and we'll do our best to repeat this performance tomorrow in the race. It has come about through a combination of factors as we have had new updates, a new aero package in the last couple of races and I think we're seeing the benefit of it here. Michael also had a very nice lap and was happy with the balance of the car and we're looking forward to the race tomorrow."
Juan Pablo Montoya will spearhead the Michelin challenge in tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix after qualifying second fastest – the first time this year that Bibendum has not annexed pole position for a Formula One race.
The company is well placed to add to its impressive seasonal tally of 11 victories from 12 events, however. Several of Michelin's partners have shown a competitive turn of speed. Jarno Trulli will line up third, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen – despite the disadvantage of running first on the road in the wake of his retirement from last weekend's German GP), Ralf Schumacher, world championship leader Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella, Takuma Sato, Christian Klien and Nick Heidfeld.
Renault star Fernando Alonso's qualifying lap was compromised when he ran wide onto the grass at the final corner.
Kimi Raikkonen set fastest time in this morning's free practice sessions, ahead of team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya.
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director: "It is shaping up to be an interesting grand prix.It will be interesting to see how the various strategies unravel. Remember, on several occasions this year we have seen Michelin drivers condemned to the lower reaches of the grid through circumstance, yet they have still come through to finish on the podium. I'm comfortable with our position and am confident our tyres will be capable of delivering yet another victory tomorrow."
Nick Shorrock, director of Michelin F1 activities: "There has not been much to choose between our two tyre compounds and both will feature in the race. Track temperatures have been up in the high 40s today and we are expecting more of the same tomorrow. It is going to be a punishing grand prix that will demand the best of drivers and tyres alike, but both Michelin compounds have demonstrated a great blend of speed and consistency throughout the past two days."
Ron Dennis, McLaren Group chairman: "I'm confident that today's grid positions reflect differing strategies– but the truth of that will only be apparent tomorrow. It is clear that we have extremely competitive Michelin tyres and fine durability."
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