05/03/2005
NEWS STORY
Red Bull team-mates Christian Klien and David Coulthard have given themselves an excellent chance of competitive grid positions in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after posting top-six times in today's rain-hit first qualifying session.
David Coulthard: Although my position is good, my lap time was quite disappointing. My car had quite a lot of oversteer throughout the lap so I wasn't able to attack fully. If conditions had been like that during a test session I would have come straight back in, but obviously you don't have that luxury in qualifying – you just have to deal with it. Tomorrow is another day, though, and I'll do my best to finish and give the team some points in its first race.
Christian Klien: In the final seconds before going out, it is always difficult to make your tyre choice in conditions like these. It was very wet and I was the eighth car out, but I made a late decision to go out on intermediates and think that was the right call. I went out not really knowing what to expect, but my lap was all right and I don't think I made any mistakes. Obviously it is difficult to say whether the chassis balance was better than before but I was happy with the set-up given the conditions. But this is just the start. I'll have to see how I do in tomorrow's final qualifying.
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: We were lucky with the weather conditions, which dictated the outcome of this session. However, having both cars in the top ten is a great start to the qualifying session.