07/09/2007
NEWS STORY
Giorgio Pantano (Campos Grand Prix) Pole - Nearly every race when everything was going well we were nearly always in the top four, and here for sure it's a bit special and I'm at my home circuit. I like this circuit but if we see also my team-mate he made a very big improvement and he's there in third place and that means the car and everything was working very well.
Lucas di Grassi (ART Grand Prix) 2nd - I think Pantano did a very, very good lap in both sessions and with the first set I was able to keep close with him but I couldn't improve on the second one due to a lot of factors. I was surprised that this was the first qualifying of the year that iSport was not very strong, because I was expecting Glock to be very quick.
Vitaly Petrov (Campos Grand Prix) 3rd - For the first set of new tyres we had a little problem with the brakes. But we improved a lot and I want to say thank you to my team because they did a really good job and changed the car very well for my style to be able to drive on this circuit. I showed what I can do today.
Kazuki Nakajima (DAMS) 4th - It's a very good qualifying session for me, better than the morning practices. It was my first test on this track with Gp2 and I worked hard to understand the car. Then, we checked data acquisitions with my engineer in order to find the best set up for the qualifying session. We finally have made the right choices and found the good balance as shown by my 4th place. I would like to thanks all the team for the improvements done. I'm very happy of this position and I will do my best tomorrow, as usual…
Adam Carroll (FMS International) 5th - We've had another positive day, and a good start to the weekend. Fifth place is a good position to start the race tomorrow, and I really feel that we can have a strong race and come away with another podium. The circuit here is really great. It's the sheer high speeds that you enter the corners with and the bumpy braking zones that make it really challenging. It's a great place to race, and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.
Luca Filippi (Super Nova International) 7th - Having looked at the data, we could have been quickest in the session today, however I initially got stuck in traffic in the last corner & then I went wide onto the gravel on the very last lap, losing 2 tenths of a second. So in that sense we did not show our true potential today. However I am confident it will be a good race tomorrow from the first lap; I know what I need to do!
Bruno Senna (Arden International) 9th - Practice was okay this morning. We made some changes to the car afterwards, although we were not exactly sure which direction to take. In the first part of qualifying, on my first set of tyres, the balance was okay. I was confident that on the second set we could improve a lot, but the session turned into a bit of a nightmare. I got a lot of traffic and was held up by some people driving very slow in the middle of the road. So it was very frustrating, but there wasn't anything I could do. We have some good telemetry from Adrian (Zaugg), so we will take a look at that now. At least this is a circuit where it's possible to overtake, so hopefully for tomorrow we will be able to be stronger.
Mike Conway (Super Nova International) 12th - I'm disappointed with P12 really. I thought we would be in the top 6. The car was really nervous at the rear, it felt like the traction was out, so it was hard to keep high speed into the corners. We start mid-field tomorrow which is a bit of a danger zone, so it's important to get a good start. However this is a cool circuit, good for overtaking and I really think that we have a good race pace.
Marcos Martinez (Racing Engineering) 16th - I'm very happy with my qualifying position. Free Practice went very well and I finished 16th and my car was behaving very well. I'm feeling better and better in the car, more confident all the time. Tomorrow my objective is to finish the race and gain more experience. I would like to thank the Racing Engineering team for all their hard work.
Javier Villa (Racing Engineering) 17th - From the beginning of Free Practice I could see what direction to take the car in but the gearbox problem stopped my practice early. The car was better for qualifying and I lowered my time by a second but then the sensor problem with my gearbox began and I had to drive with more caution, being very careful with my gear changes. I'm sure things will be OK for tomorrow and I can push hard in the Feature Race.
Nicolas Lapierre (DAMS) 19th - It's a disappointing qualification session after the free practice of the morning which was positive. On my first set of tyres, I couldn't take advantage of the track when the conditions were the best ones. In my second run, I didn't improve due to the traffic. For tomorrow, the start will be exciting with a lot of car in the first chicane. Then, I will push hard to grab positions.
Kohei Hirate (Trident Racing) 20th - I was really expecting a top-10 position today, but our final result was far from positive. During the whole session I had a good impression from the car, it seemed very balanced, but when I finally took a look at the laptimes I had a bad surprise. All it takes now is to analyze data, and try to explain what failed to work properly.
Ricardo Risatti (Trident Racing) 22nd - In the first practice I had some troubles while breaking, but the team successfully managed to sort it all out before Qualifying. The car`s handling was absolutely normal; the bad starting position is due to the fact that I couldn`t put together my best splits. The races will be super-tough, but since the track here at Monza gives plenty of space to pass, I hope I`ll be able to fight back and earn a good spot for Sunday.
Jason Tahinci (FMS International) 24th - I'm disappointed to have the penalty because it changes the whole way that we have to approach the race, but I've got no hard feelings or worries going into the race because even if I had performed my best today, I'd still be starting at the back. Our strategy in qualifying today was to save new tyres, but unfortunately I slightly overdrove the car when I did put new tyres on. It means that I have some new tyres for the race though, and I just have to learn from today and do my best to progress in the race.
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