03/09/2005
NEWS STORY
In this afternoon's qualifying session, David Coulthard and team-mate Christian Klien set the eleventh and thirteenth fastest time respectively. However, following Kimi Raikkonen's ten-place grid penalty, which was applied when his engine was changed between the fourth practice and qualifying session, the Finn dropped to eleventh position overall, which promoted David Coulthard to tenth. As a result, the Red Bull Racing duo will line up tenth and thirteenth on tomorrow's grid, for the Italian Grand Prix.
David Coulthard: No big events during that lap; the balance of the car was good, but it was capable of going quicker. I wasn't entirely happy with my performance in qualifying and think it's fair to say that Christian wasn't either. I wasn't really able to feel the car enough on the warm up lap, it felt a bit numb, so I couldn't tell how hard to push. As a result, I was a bit too conservative going into the first chicane and lost a couple of tenths by braking too early. It's frustrating when that happens, as once you've taken the decision, it's difficult to make up the time after. Nonetheless, I think we've got good experience of the car on this track and it's certainly possible for the team to score some points.
Christian Klien: I don't think that was such great lap. I suffered with understeer in two different places, including the last corner. It meant I had to back off and lost some time. I think it could have been better, as overall feeling of the car is good, but a few small mistakes make all the difference.
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: Tenth and thirteenth is a respectable performance. Both drivers felt there was more time to be extracted from the qualifying session, but the absolute optimum would have been ninth for us today. Looking to tomorrow, we've got a good strategy and, as we tend to race better than we qualify, I think we can look forward to an interesting afternoon.