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2005 Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix
What the teams and drivers said - Saturday

Team and Driver Quotes following Saturday Qualifying

(selected team quotes, for a full team and driver report click on the team name)

Ferrari ( Michael Schumacher - 1st, Rubens Barrichello - 7th )

Jean Todt: �We had forgotten what pole position tasted like and today, we can savour it again thanks to an extraordinary lap from Michael. This result makes us very happy and is the reward for the vast amount of work carried out over the last few months by the team along with our friends at Bridgestone. Rubens� seventh place is also a good result, given that his time is very close to that of the cars ahead of him. Now we face the toughest task of the weekend, namely the race. As usual, reliability, strategy and the consistency of tyre performance will play key roles. For our part, as usual, we will give it our all. A good result would be important for the morale of the team and all our fans.�

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

McLaren Mercedes ( Juan Pablo Montoya - 2nd, Kimi Raikkonen - 4th )

RON DENNIS
"An outstanding qualifying performance from both drivers. A good start coupled with our race strategy will give Kimi and Juan Pablo every opportunity to have strong races."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Toyota ( Jarno Trulli - 3rd, Ralf Schumacher - 5th )

Dieter Gass - Chief Race Engineer
"We are obviously delighted with today's qualifying performance. We've looked in strong shape throughout the whole weekend and from 3rd and 5th on the grid we are looking forward to a strong race. Jarno obviously had a tough time having to go out so early in the session, particularly after missing out on running this morning. But in the end you could see from Raikkonen that the circuit wasn't quite as bad as we expected at the beginning of the session. In the end both drivers put in strong laps and having them both start from the clean side of the grid is good news for the race. We're confident about our strategy and we'll look to reap more rewards tomorrow."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Renault ( Fernando Alonso - 6th, Giancarlo Fisichella - 9th )

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
"A disappointing qualifying session for the team. Fernando lost four grid positions in the final corner, while Giancarlo also missed out on a position by just three hundredths of a second. As always, we feel confident in our race pace and the preparations we have made for the race tomorrow, which will certainly be run in extremely hot conditions. We are looking forward to a more competitive showing in the Grand Prix than we achieved this afternoon."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

BAR Honda ( Jenson Button - 8th, Takuma Sato - 10th )

GIL DE FERRAN, SPORTING DIRECTOR "We are reasonably happy with our qualifying slots and both drivers had good clean laps. We suspect there are different strategies at play in the front half of the field, therefore it is hard to draw any definite conclusions. The cars are fairly well-balanced and we hope our homework will pay good dividends tomorrow."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Red Bull ( Christian Klien - 11th, David Coulthard - 13th )

Chrisitan Klien
�Not a bad qualifying time for me, I think. The balance of the car felt much better in qualifying than it did this morning, so I was able to push quite hard. It was a pretty clean lap with no mistakes so I�m happy. It�s also good to have gone faster than my team-mate David.� Christian Horner, Sporting Director: �Christian drove a strong lap with no real mistakes and got a good time. David was quicker in the first sector, but lost a little bit of a time in the middle section. We�re pleased with the strategy we�ve adopted here and with the performance of both cars today.�

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Williams BMW ( Nick Heidfeld - 12th, Mark Webber - 16th )

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): So far the improvements that we have brought to the car are working well. We obviously still have some work to do and we will keep pushing hard. Tomorrow it will be interesting to see where the strategies are as it is quite a mixed grid. Temperatures will be high in tomorrow's race, so we are looking at this as well.

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Sauber ( Felipe Massa - 14th, Jacques Villeneuve - 15th )

Willy Rampf (Technical Director): "We arrived at a satisfactory set-up on both cars after the problems we had achieving a good handling balance yesterday, but we lacked qualifying pace. However, we know that we will be in better shape in the race with the strategy that we have chosen."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Minardi ( Christijan Albers - 17th, Robert Doornbos - 19th )

PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth
�Another strong performance from the Minardi drivers in qualifying saw Christijan ahead of our nearest rivals and Robert split the Jordans after he made a small mistake under braking in the first sector of his qualifying lap. Overall, the team�s performance has been strong so far this weekend, and with continuing improvements to the car and a sensible strategy for tomorrow�s 20th Hungarian Grand Prix, we are looking forward to the race.�

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Jordan ( Narain Karthikeyan - 18th, Tiago Monteiro - 20th )

ADRIAN BURGESS, SPORTING DIRECTOR
�First of all, I would like to thank Toyota for showing their faith in joining Jordan and Midland again next year, which will please everybody at the factory and the people here at the circuit. I would also like to welcome on board Johnny Herbert, who will be a welcome breath of fresh air as he is a very experienced and likeable character. There is no doubt that everybody will get on well with him. In practice this morning, we had a small issue with Tiago�s engine and had to change our strategy. Narain had a good clean lap and we are happy with our strategy for tomorrow.�

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Bridgestone

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport, said: �An excellent performance from Michael, it�s good to see him back on top. We have done a lot of work over the past few months and that has begun to pay off today. It�s good to see the latest new compound working well and we hope to see it continue to perform well in the race tomorrow. Rubens will also be starting from a strong position and he should be able to benefit from the car-tyre package as he has been running consistently well all weekend. The Jordan and Minardi drivers have been working hard, too, so I expect them to be pushing the other teams ahead of them. Our tyres have the speed and now I would like to see our teams use that to run a fast, consistent race tomorrow.�

Full Bridgestone Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Michelin

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director
�It is shaping up to be an interesting grand prix.It will be interesting to see how the various strategies unravel. Remember, on several occasions this year we have seen Michelin drivers condemned to the lower reaches of the grid through circumstance, yet they have still come through to finish on the podium. I�m comfortable with our position and am confident our tyres will be capable of delivering yet another victory tomorrow.�

Full Michelin Qualifying Report  Back to Top

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