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2007 Canada GP
Team Quotes - Saturday 9 June
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix from his first ever Formula 1 pole position after setting a fastest time of 1m15.707. Team-mate Fernando Alonso qualified second with 1m16.163. It is the second consecutive 1-2 qualifying of the season for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team.
Ron Dennis: A fantastic qualifying result for the team for the second time in a row and for Lewis to achieve his first ever Formula 1 pole position. Fernando was unlucky on his second qualifying lap not to have improved following two great first sectors. We are confident that we will have a strong showing in tomorrow's race but certainly will not be complacent.
Norbert Haug: A qualifying like a dream. Lewis will start from his first Formula 1 pole position in only his sixth Grand Prix. Fernando was fastest in both the first and second sectors and until the final sector it looked like he would make it. Lewis and Fernando achieved the best possible qualifying result for the team for the second time within a fortnight. This does of course not mean that we have already won the race, as tomorrow's 70 laps will be extremely demanding but we should be in a strong position.
The ING Renault F1 Team delivered a disappointing qualifying performance this afternoon at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Heikki Kovalainen failed to progress past the first knockout round after an accident on his first flying lap disrupted his session, while Giancarlo Fisichella did not fully capitalise on the improved performance of the R27 during the final round of qualifying, and will line up in ninth position on the grid for tomorrow's race. Heikki will also observe an engine change penalty following a sudden failure during this morning's practice session, and will therefore start from P22, subject to any penalties for other cars. While neither grid position is as strong as the team had hoped after seeing an improvement in the car's relative performance during the weekend, the Canadian Grand Prix is always an incident-filled race, where overtaking is possible and safety car periods a strong possibility on a circuit with very little run-off. As ever, the team will race to its maximum and for Giancarlo in particular, the car's competitiveness on longer runs means he is optimistic of making up positions during the race.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: Giancarlo has had an extremely good weekend and looked competitive through every session, so ultimately his final qualifying position of P9 is a bit disappointing. Several small mistakes on his final timed lap meant he failed to improve his time, and put paid to his chances of a better starting position. However, bearing in mind his pace in the other sessions, he should still have a good race. Heikki's accident yesterday and engine failure today have limited his running on a circuit that is new to him. In trying hard to find the limit during qualifying today, he slightly overstepped the mark. The mechanics did a great job to get him out again, but his final lap was also only his first lap of the weekend on the soft tyre. The last word, though, goes to our mechanics. They have experienced another very hard weekend, with an unscheduled chassis change yesterday followed by gearbox and engine changes today, plus the urgent repairs during qualifying. They have taken all of this in their stride, and performed magnificently.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operation: We have become accustomed to talking about normal, trouble-free days – and unfortunately, this was anything but. Although we experienced a problem with Heikki's engine at the end of the race in Monaco, our post-race analysis found no problems, and we took the decision to race it here in Canada. The sudden mechanical failure we experienced this morning was unrelated to the incident in Monaco, and we are still working to understand exactly what happened. However, we are confident that this does not present a risk for the other three Renault engines in the field. Giancarlo had a more straightforward day, and showed encouraging pace for much of the qualifying session. We know the car has the potential to perform well tomorrow in race conditions, and we will be hoping to see both drivers make good progress through the field.
Jean Todt: This was a very disappointing qualifying session for us, the worst of the season as we were no match for our main rivals. Of course, the points only get given out in the race and tomorrow the key factors will be the usual ones – strategy, reliability, performance and team work, but the overall picture after today is not a favourable one and I hope that changes for the race.
Luca Baldisserri: At this circuit the result of qualifying is less important than at others but we cannot deny that today our closest rivals were quicker than us. We know we have a competitive package when running in race trim and here, the strategy and the work of the team can be decisive. This race is very tough on the cars and reliability will play a key role. We will try to bring home as many points as possible, while being aware that we face a tough race.
The Honda Racing F1 Team's Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button will start tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix from the 7th and 8th rows of the grid after ending today's qualifying session in 13th and 15th positions respectively. Both drivers made it through Q1 but struggled during Q2, Jenson experiencing low grip whilst Rubens' quick lap was compromised when he ran wide onto the marbles.
Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director: We expected to qualify higher up the grid but neither of the drivers got a clean lap at the end of Q2. We have also suffered with tyre warm-up problems and therefore a general lack of grip. With race fuel loads tomorrow this problem will disappear. We have a good race pace and with the right strategy we should be able to make up a number of places.
The BMW Sauber F1 Team experienced a very exciting qualifying session in which Nick Heidfeld secured third place on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix. The last time he finished third was at the season's opener in Australia. His team- mate, Robert Kubica, was still unhappy with the balance of his F1.07 and finished 8th.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): This is an excellent qualifying result for Nick. After a troubled free practice session this morning he put in a very strong effort into qualifying. Certainly third place is a promising position to start the race from. For Robert qualifying wasn't as good. Due to technical difficulties in the first free practice he lost track time, and was still not happy with the car's set-up when it was time for qualifying. On top of that, he was unlucky when three drivers set lap-times within just one tenth of a second and he was on the lower end of this group.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): That's a brilliant result - especially after the thrilling Q2. After Nick's lap time was deleted because he had cut the chicane, for him it was all or nothing. He managed this in an impressive way. For Robert it didn't go as well and he finished, beaten by fractions, in eight position. To be honest, this second row was what we hoped to achieve here.
Panasonic Toyota Racing will line up with one car in the top ten of the grid for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix after a mixed qualifying session. Following yesterday's front suspension problems, the team investigated the cause overnight at the circuit and back in its Cologne factory. The front upright that failed had been used for two years without problems and no problem was found with the production batch. But the engineers did identify that the set-up run during yesterday afternoon's practice could lead to interference between the upright and the wishbone under extreme circumstances. So the team reverted to a more usual set-up today and as an extra precaution it asked the drivers to avoid riding over the higher secondary kerb at turn 8. Despite missing much of the weekend's practice Jarno Trulli did well to make it into Q3, taking 10th place on the grid. Ralf Schumacher hit traffic during his fastest laps in Q1 and will line up in 18th place tomorrow. Now Toyota will push to make the most of these positions and come away with a strong result in tomorrow's race.
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis: We have recovered from our lack of running in P2 yesterday but still today was our worst performance of the season in terms of pace. We have lost ground to our immediate rivals like Renault, Red Bull and Williams. Jarno did well to break into the top 10 but Ralf was unlucky. He had traffic in the last outing which is obviously the most important one after the red flag we had in Q1. It's been a hard weekend and practice was also disrupted by a red flag this morning. Overnight we confirmed that yesterday's suspension problem was not caused by an issue with the production batch. But in Turn 8 you have full steering lock just as you hit a big rumble strip and with the set-up we were using these extreme circumstances led to interference between the upright and the wishbone. So today we reverted to a more classical set-up window for camber, ride height and suspension stiffness. We are totally confident these measures have resolved the issue and made it safe to compete. But as an extra precaution we asked our drivers to change their driving line to avoid riding the highest part of the kerbs at that corner. Now we must look to make the most out of these starting positions in the race.
Christian Horner: A positive session for Mark, who had no major dramas in any of the qualifying sectors. He strung a good lap together on his last run to put himself on the third row for the second race in succession, it's a positive result for the whole team. David unfortunately had an issue with the brakes on his car glazing in the first qualifying session. He managed to get through into Q2, but then appears to have had a repeat of the same issue. However, that's hopefully an easy fix ahead of tomorrow.
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer, Track Support: We are quite pleased with the results today. Mark made his way through the qualifying without any problem and set the sixth-fastest lap time, which is the position we deserve. It is a pity for David who endured a more difficult afternoon but we are quite confident. He has a strong engine, the car seems efficient and he is an aggressive driver, he can do a strong race tomorrow. From our point of view, the race looks promising and we hope to confirm the competitiveness of our package.
The AT&T Williams team had a mixed qualifying session with Nico Rosberg securing P7 on the grid for tomorrow's Canadian GP, while team-mate Alex Wurz had a troubled Q1 and his qualifying efforts ended 15 minutes into the afternoon session. Alex will start the race from P20 and despite his disappointment, has vowed to fight back with as much commitment as he showed in the Malaysian GP back in April when he claimed ten positions over his grid slot. With a more advantageous race start position for Nico, the ambition will clearly be to secure as many valuable points as possible tomorrow.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: Nico had a good qualifying and he only just missed out on P6, so he did a good job all the way through the sessions and we will work to finish higher up than that tomorrow. Unfortunately Alex didn't get past Q1 and his situation wasn't helped by the red flag, but it was a shame he didn't make it through the first session. Both the cars ran fine and we are looking forward to having a good race with Nico tomorrow and hoping that Alex can come through the field.
Giorgio Ascanelli: Our best qualifying of the season, with both cars getting through into Q2 for the first time this year. We need to see if we can repeat this in future races before we can really talk about a positive trend, but nevertheless everybody in the team is really trying his best and hardest to achieve something. As for today's result, we can only be happy about it.
The Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team will start tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix with Adrian Sutil and Christijan Albers in 21st and 22nd places respectively.
In a mark of the high standard of competition this year, the duo were just over two seconds from pole position and under a second from entering Q2. This encouraging performance followed from the morning's free practice session, with both just over one second from the top 10.
Both drivers completed two runs on the supersoft Bridgestone Potenza tyres in the disrupted first Qualifying segment, with Adrian recording a best time of 1:18.536 and Christijan a 1:19.196 lap.
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: 'Although we qualified with both cars on the back row, it's probably true to say that today has been our most competitive of the season. In both free practice and Qualifying we were just two seconds off the pace, which shows just how competitive Formula 1 is at the moment. But both drivers were quite happy with the car, although did find less grip in Qualifying this afternoon. We are quite close to a big group in front and, as it's usually an incident-packed race, we have to see if through a decent strategy we can pick up a good result.'
Overnight showers in Montréal made for difficult track conditions once again this morning. Super Aguri drivers Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson both completed trouble-free Practice programmes and ended the session happy with the balance of the SA07.
A Red Flag situation at the start of the afternoon's Qualifying session meant a change in strategy for the remainder of Q1. Takuma set a fastest lap time of 1:16.743 which saw him comfortably go through to Q2 and he will lead the Honda-powered teams' for the start of the Canadian Grand Prix from 11th position on the grid.
Graham Taylor, Sporting Director: The Red Flag during Q1 set us on the back foot a little bit this afternoon, but we recovered well I think to get the cars out at the right time. Unfortunately for Anthony we weren't able to set a good enough lap time to get him through to Q2, missing out by a thousandth of a second. It is disappointing because his Sector 1 and Sector 2 times looked more than capable of getting us through to the next round. Taku did not have a great run, but it was good enough to get us through to Q2 where, with a structured plan, we could perform at our rightful place. He completed a good lap to put himself P11 on the grid and give us the best option for strategy for tomorrow.
McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has powered to his first Formula One pole position after extracting the maximum performance from the Bridgestone Potenza super soft compound to set a lap of 1min 15.707secs around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The feat was all the more impressive as this is Hamilton's debut at this circuit.
Hamilton was fastest in all bar the first qualifying session and will be joined on the front row of the grid by team-mate Fernando Alonso. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) were third and fourth fastest on a day where teams struggled to find a good set-up on a rapidly changing circuit.
Minimising rear tyre degradation is a priority here and with the changing grip levels a good set-up today will not necessarily be the correct one for tomorrow's race. Hamilton set the day's fastest lap, a 1min 15.486secs, in the second qualifying session. Two seconds covered the top 18 drivers.
Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations: Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for achieving his first pole position in Formula One. For a driver who has learnt his craft through karting and the GP2 Series on Bridgestone tyres, it was appropriate that his first Formula One pole was also on Bridgestones. Because of the rain overnight and the cars running before us, the circuit was quite slippery in the morning so we did not see any real track improvements until later in the day. The super soft was clearly the faster Potenza and was used for the fastest laps by all of the drivers. The graining on both compounds was clearly reduced, however it is fair to say that the low number of laps run, and the low fuel loads were also a factor in this. I am confident that both compounds will work as predicted in the race.
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