17/03/2007
NEWS STORY
David Coulthard: The first and second sectors of my last timed lap were good, but I came through Turn 15 and there was a lot of dust and dirt on the track, which got on my tyres. I then went in to the last corner, went out of the groove and on to the marbles, so lost all the time I'd gained in the first two sectors. What should have been a fairly easy ‘getting through' session didn't prove to be the case. I didn't expect to be nineteenth on the grid, but that's the reality, so now I'll focus on the race and see what we can get out of that.
Mark Webber: I didn't think I'd be seventh, so it's great. We lost time with a transmission problem yesterday, but the guys worked really hard last night, did a good job and we've got something out of it. We've done a lot of testing over the winter break, but it's always interesting to actually get into the ring at the first race and see where we are. There's still a long way to go tomorrow, we have to see if we can deliver in the race – it should be an interesting grand prix.
Christian Horner: It was a very good effort by Mark and it's positive that he's starting in a good grid position at his home race. He certainly demonstrated that he's a cool customer in qualifying. David was unlucky not to finish his flying lap in Q1, which would have comfortably put him in to Q2. He's going to have a more challenging afternoon tomorrow, but he's got a good track record here and today's given positive signs that we're moving in the right direction.
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer, Track Support: The qualifying session went very smoothly for us and the engine performed well. As expected the competition was extremely close. We are sorry that David didn't make it past Q1, but we are pleased by the pace that Mark showed through the different stages. He was very impressive in Q2 particularly. For the first GP of this new partnership we set the seventh fastest lap time and we are well up the top speed charts too. It‘s a very promising result and we hope to confirm this good start in tomorrow's race.
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