03/04/2005
NEWS STORY
Red Bull
David Coulthard: As far as the balance of the car goes, I had a lot more understeer this morning, which is what you would expect with more fuel on board. I don't seem to have managed many good laps here, but this was definitely the worst one of the weekend. I drove an untidy lap and I just wished I could start all over again. I'm not making excuses, but I also got a bit distracted, seeing the Ferrari parked at the side of the track. Hopefully, things will go better in the race and I am sure Christian has a good chance of scoring points, as he seems to have got well tuned into his car this weekend.
Christian Klien: This was a fantastic lap for me and the car felt good although of course it was a bit harder to drive than yesterday, because of the heavier fuel load. I am very happy with the way it went, as I have been able to make up one position on the grid and from the fourth row, I can expect to have a good race and hopefully score some more points for me and the team.
Sauber drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve will start today's Bahrain Grand Prix from 12th and 16th positions respectively after this morning's final qualifying session.
Jacques Villeneuve: "At least I didn't go off like yesterday, even though the car is more difficult to drive when there's more fuel in the tank, so that's a big improvement. Now I just want to concentrate on the race."
Felipe Massa: "That was pretty much what I expected from second qualifying. It was always going to be asking a lot to stay in the top 10 with the strategy we have chosen, and I made a bit of a mistake at the end of the second sector although I don't think that actually made much difference overall. I'm still very optimistic for the race, and I think with the plan we have I can really fight hard this afternoon."
Minardi
Minardi F1 Team drivers, Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher will take up the 19th and 20th positions on the grid for today's Grand Prix of Bahrain, following completion of this morning's final qualifying session. Neither was completely satisfied with his run this morning, but with track conditions and available grip levels likely to alter as temperatures rise to in excess of 40 deg C later today, Albers and Friesacher will be hoping their respective chassis set-ups will suit the conditions they are likely to encounter in the race.
Christijan Albers: I wasn't completely happy with that run, as the chassis was tending to oversteer. We'll get it sorted for the race, though, no problem.
Patrick Friesacher: I made a few small mistakes on the lap, and there was a bit too much understeer everywhere, so I couldn't really ‘play' with the car the way I normally like to. Now I'm looking forward to the race this afternoon, though, and doing the best I can.
Fernando will start from pole this afternoon, while Giancarlo Fisichella will line up tenth on the grid.
Fernando Alonso: The second qualifying session is always difficult: it is the first hot lap of the day for the drivers, and you need to find the limit straight away. The wind was strong again today, and the circuit conditions a little bit worse than yesterday afternoon. But nevertheless I managed to do a good lap, and tried not to make any mistakes. It wasn't perfect, but I did what was necessary to keep pole position.
Giancarlo Fisichella: Of course, I am disappointed with the result of this session: I locked a wheel under braking for turn 4, so went wide and got on the dirty part of the track. It's not perfect to be starting from tenth, but I will certainly be able to fight hard in order to climb up the field and score points this afternoon.
Toyota
For the first time this season, a Panasonic Toyota Racing TF105 will not feature on the front row of the grid, but fine performances from both Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher ensured two Toyotas in the top six for this afternoon's Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir.
Jarno Trulli will start the Bahrain GP from third on the grid after a tidy second qualifying lap this morning. Trulli will benefit from starting on the cleaner side of the track and be looking to make headway on Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher, who will occupy the front row.
Jarno Trulli: "For the first time this season, I will not start from the front row of the grid, but I think third is a still a good result and representative of our current competitiveness. I am starting on the cleaner side of the track, which will hopefully enable me to get a better start than my immediate challengers and from there we have to look at finishing amongst the frontrunners."
Ralf Schumacher put his troubles from yesterday behind him and drove an impeccable lap in second qualifying to leapfrog five cars and put his TF105 in sixth place on the Bahrain grid. In the process, Ralf set the third quickest lap of the session, bettered only by front row incumbents Fernando and Michael.
Ralf Schumacher: "My lap this morning was good, but I can't quite shake the feeling of frustration because of the mistake on my flying lap yesterday. Looking on the positive side, I made up five positions as a result of today's session, which has put me in with a real chance for another good points finish this afternoon with a car that Jarno has shown can challenge for the podium."
Not claiming pole position in today's final qualifying session could prove to be more beneficial for Panasonic Toyota Racing with the impressive pace of the TF105s setting the team up nicely to cement its second place in the constructors championship.
Mike Gascoyne – Technical Director Chassis: "It was a pretty good session this morning with Ralf more than making up for his lap yesterday with an excellent run to make up five positions on his way to sixth on the grid. Jarno, although not on the front row, will benefit from starting the race on the clean side of the track from where we will be looking to ensure a second successive podium finish and both cars firmly in the points."
WilliamsF1
Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber will start from the second and third rows respectively having qualified fourth and fifth for today's Bahrain Grand Prix. Nick equalled his best qualifying ever in F1 while Mark Webber improved his position from sixth to fifth from yesterday's first qualifying session.
Nick Heidfeld: I have equalled today my best ever qualifying position in Formula 1 and I am very pleased. Starting from the second row I am potentially much closer to a podium finish here than I was in Malaysia where I started tenth and managed to get into third place. We have a good car for the race and a good strategy. There's no doubt that our car has definitely taken a step forward with the new parts that we have introduced here.
Mark Webber: It is pretty harsh to expect the drivers to do a perfect lap on Sunday morning since fuel load, track and wind conditions – especially here - have changed since yesterday afternoon. Some of the corners were very good for me, some others less perfect, but all in all I had a fairly satisfying lap and I have improved one position from yesterday's qualifying.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): It was a good qualifying and both our drivers did a good job. Looking at the gap in front of Nick and Mark, I don't think they could have made that up. Now we look to see how the race goes in these extremely hot and testing ambient conditions.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): Both of our drivers achieved a clean lap again in the second qualifying, with the cars in race conditions. Nick consolidated his fourth place whilst Mark has improved from sixth to fifth. They are both good positions to start the race from. Now the attention is on the temperature that should top what we had two weeks ago in Malaysia. This will drive both man and machine to the very limits.
BAR
Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Jenson Button will line up on the 6th row of the grid for the start of this afternoon's 57-lap Bahrain Grand Prix having secured the 11th fastest aggregated time after this morning's final qualifying session.
Jenson was encouraged by the performance of the car in race trim with used tyres and fuel. He will be starting on the clean side of the grid which should afford an advantage but predicts a tough and very competitive race. Nonetheless he is confident of the car's race pace and believes it can help him to achieve a points finish at the Bahrain International Circuit this afternoon.
This was Takuma Sato's first opportunity this season to complete a final qualifying lap with race fuel. Unfortunately he ran wide in the high speed section after his car was unsettled by the gusty conditions at the top of the hill at turn 12 and low grip, which compromised an otherwise solid lap. His aggregated time puts him on the 7th row of the grid in 13th place.
McLaren
West McLaren Mercedes drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Kimi Raikkonen finished today's second qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix this afternoon in eighth and ninth place respectively with aggregate times of 3:03.373 for Pedro and 3:03.524 for Kimi.
Pedro de la Rosa: "The important thing today was that the conditions on track were much better than yesterday, so I could push the car harder in the corners. The balance of the car was good despite experiencing slight understeer due to the wind, so now I need to have a solid race to get a good result."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Again the first two sectors were strong, but I lost a lot of grip in the last sector and the car was sliding a little too much. However I believe we have a competitive package for the race."
Ron Dennis: "A very close grid which should make for an exciting race, where we will see each team's strategy unfold."
Norbert Haug: "Being eighth and ninth on the grid is not where we want to be, but our race speed should be good and there is a chance that we will look better than in qualifying."