19/06/2004
NEWS STORY
Olivier Panis: "During yesterday's practice sessions, we set a solid base for the weekend gathering valuable data about the tyres. In today's sessions I felt comfortable in the car and my qualifying lap went well. I am quite happy with my starting position for the race and from eighth on the grid, it is certainly a realistic target to score points tomorrow. We are getting the full potential out of the TF104 and everyone continues to do a great job. On the one hand, to be only one-tenth from the top five is a shame, but on the other, it shows the positive development of the entire team."
Cristiano da Matta: "I was expecting more from qualifying today based on our performance in the practice. I suffered with less grip than in the previous sessions, which prevented me from attacking as much as I have been able to throughout the weekend. Nevertheless, we have demonstrated more competitiveness at this track than at any other all season, so I remain optimistic for the race."
Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis: "Although this is one of our best qualifying performances of the year so far, we are all a little bit disappointed that we were unable to get both cars in the top ten and higher up the grid. It is an extremely tight field with only one-tenth-of-a-second separating us from a top five result. Both drivers were unhappy with the grip levels in the second session, which we will look into, but overall we have a competitive package for the race, so we have to target points for both cars tomorrow."