28/05/2005
NEWS STORY
Jean Todt: Once again in this session, we had to tackle the usual problem that has been with us for a while now, that's to say the fact we are not totally competitive over the single lap. Looking at the session overall, there is still the unknown factor of how much fuel the others had on board, given that we have gone back to the old qualifying format we saw last year. We are sure we will be more competitive in the race and now we have to see what strategies the teams have adopted and the answer will come tomorrow afternoon. What is certain is that, as usual, we will do our utmost to get the best possible result with both cars.
Rubens Barrichello: This morning, I did not feel we were very competitive, but my qualifying lap was quite good, even if it could have been a bit better. But at least the balance of the car seems good. We definitely look better than last weekend, so now we must wait and see how our strategy plays out tomorrow afternoon.
Michael Schumacher: I want to congratulate Nick on his first F1 pole. It was a super lap and he deserves it. On my qualifying lap, I had a bit of understeer, especially in Turn 10 and lost some tenths there. As usual so far this season, I am looking forward to the race when we should be more competitive than today. It is hard for me to predict what we can expect tomorrow, because there have been times over this weekend when things did not look too promising. But the same can be said of Monaco and we had great race pace there, so I just plan to push hard and see what happens, trying to pick up as many points as possible.
Ross Brawn: We were not in a strong position to challenge for qualifying, but I think we have a good race set-up and we have a nicely consistent tyre for tomorrow. This will be an important factor as the forecast is for very high temperatures. In this afternoon's hotter conditions, the car did not react quite as well as in the morning, but within the scope of changes we are allowed to make for the race, we can compensate for that for tomorrow. Unlike Monaco, there is potential to get something out of a good race strategy and of course it is possible to overtake at this track. So, I am optimistic that we can do something good in the race. We have to hope that both drivers make good starts and then as things settle down, wait and see if the race comes to us.