18/06/2005
NEWS STORY
Following yesterday's tyre-related incidents in free practice, the Michelin-shod teams contested today's qualifying session under guidance from the French tyre manufacturer, even though the problem wasn't one which had affected the BMW WilliamsF1 Team. Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber qualified 9th and 15th respectively for tomorrow's US GP.
Mark Webber: It was a reasonable lap and I could not have got much more out of it. We have done as much as we could to prepare the car for the race and tonight we will again go through all our data. The tyre situation is obviously an issue at the moment, even if we didn't experience any problems. However, I have been through a similar situation before at Le Mans and it's important that the right decision is taken for all concerned. I am sure that Michelin will find a good solution in order to guarantee safety and a good race for everyone involved, included the pubic, of course.
Nick Heidfeld: Qualifying didn't go as planned and I am not happy with my lap. The car was quite difficult to drive because there was very low grip. It was a lot better yesterday but this morning we struggled and again the same happened in qualifying. It is a bit of an unknown territory what we have entered in consequence of the tyre issue and this has probably also affected our performance today. However, we must say we haven't experienced any problems with our tyre so far this weekend.
Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): It was a disappointing qualifying session for us, at least on the face of it. However th practice session long runs were good so we'll see tomorrow. We had to make a lot of adjustments to cope with the higher tyre pressure, now stipulated by Michelin. But this is the same for all the Michelin running teams. So far our car didn't experience any tyre faults. Now we look forward to our strategy tomorrow, when we will see where everybody is. It will be an interesting race tomorrow.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): As in previous years, Indianapolis does not seem to be a good place for our team again. Our qualifying performance was in accordance to what we have seen in free practice already. We are not able to run at the front here. Now both our drivers need to concentrate on a flawless performance in the race in order to make it into the points. One week ago we proved that this is possible.