13/04/2007
NEWS STORY
Luca Filippi - Pole: We only made a few small changes during the session, because the car was perfect! It was very important to start strong, as it helps with confidence, and shows everyone we only have one goal! We have a consistently good pace, so I'm not worried about tomorrow, just very pleased with how its gone today!
Xandi Negrao – 2nd: Minardi Piquet Sports. +0.085 I think it was a surprise for everybody, even for me! After the winter I knew if we would arrive here with a good set up, we could have a good position and now we've done it! Of course the race is the important thing, but to start on the first row is a good feeling for me
Andi Zuber – 3rd: My aim is to be top five in qualifying and top three in the race, and now I'm third in qualifying so it's good for me. I didn't get the best out of the tyres, but anyway the race is tomorrow, so we'll see.
Kohei Hirate - 6th: Today we really went beyond our most positive expectations. In the free practice, held this morning, I experienced problems with traction and a power-steering failure, but the team was perfect in fixing anything, so I had a great car in qualifying. I'm really confident in tomorrow's race.
Kazuki Nakajima - 9th: It was my first qualifying session in GP2 Series today, and it was not easy to find a good lap with the new tyres. I am not hundred percent happy with the result, but the lap times are closed and the car has a good potential. I am confident for the race.
Mike Conway - 10th: There was more time to be had on my first set of tyres I think, and we didn't get a chance to optimise the second set. If we had of we could have been P2. But we have a good pace, and anything can happen in a race, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow!
Nicolas Lapierre - 11th: I was stuck in the traffic in my second run. The lap times were very tight and I lost many places. The car has a good set-up and keeps the tyres in good shape. We can be hopeful for the race.
Pastor Maldonado - 19th: I was surprised by an unexpected problem: my car was unstable in the morning session, and maybe the fix we tried worked in the wrong way, considering the different conditions we had this afternoon. I feel sorry because I was in the top-10 all winter long, and my car has always been very easy to drive. Tomorrow I'll have to come back front, and since there's still a long way to go, anything can happen."
Javier Villa - 21st: In free practice we were up there but in qualifying a fuel pump problem didn't allow us to do a lot. For tomorrow we are looking for a stable car as the track is very difficult, very slippery and it's quite easy to spin.
Sergio Jimenez - 22nd: It wasn't easy for me as I am still unfamiliar with the car and the track. The car was good in the morning until I had a drivetrain problem but the team did a fantastic job to fix it in time for qualifying. The car was very good at the start of qualifying and I was 13th fastest but when we fitted new tyres there wasn't the improvement we were hoping for so I dropped back.
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