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.

Patrick Friesacher: "I'm happy with today's qualifying. We did a good job and the car worked well apart from a slight problem with the downshift, which cost me a little bit of time. Generally, though, I'm pleased with the lap and with our prospects for the race tomorrow."

Christijan Albers: "It was a reasonable qualifying lap, although not perfect, and there were two oversteering moments that lost me time. I think we have a good strategy for tomorrow, however, so as usual, it will be maximum attack in the 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."