Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:59 pm
Michael is fast, Massa faster in S1!
Fisichella faster than Alonso in S1!
Fisichella faster than Alonso in S1!
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Michael Schumacher - 2ndThis is a fantastic result. To be on pole position at a track that I like very much and where the driver counts for a lot is very special. I managed to do a great lap, with no mistakes and starting from the front
is definitely important for the race. I am also happy that we have both Ferraris on the front row and that our main rivals are two rows behind us and I hope we can also finish the race with them the same number of
places behind us. I am looking forward to the race when I hope we can continue to score as many points as possible for both championships and for me to try and reach my personal target of finishing third in the
Drivers? classification. The Bridgestone tyres and the car behaved very well and we can expect this to also be the case tomorrow afternoon.
Ralf Schumacher - 3rdTwo Ferraris on the front row is the perfect position for the start, given that our main rivals are on row three. There was a lot of wind and even when trying to push hard, there is always the thought that you mustn?t go over the limit, also partly because we know we have a very competitive package. On the dry, our performance has proved to be very consistent, thanks also to the valuable support of our friends at Bridgestone and that means we can be confident about tomorrow?s race. I can?t wait to see if all these theories can come true tomorrow. I am happy with the position from which I am starting, especially as Felipe is alongside me, after doing an extraordinary job today. Driving on this track in the way the performance of our car has allowed us to do is really marvellous. I am having so much fun, especially in the Esses which are a part of the track I am particularly keen on.
Jarno Trulli - 4thThat was a great achievement for the whole team. After the last two races we needed that to show where we really are in terms of pace. We knew from the previous races that we were always there from a lap time point of view and we needed to show that. Today, with the clear help of our Bridgestone tyres, we were able to show that our car is a good car. We've obviously struggled for results in the second half of this season, but our car has improved a lot. I've always said that if we had a good weekend and the tyre is right then we could be heading for the podium. This is my favourite track and while we will obviously have a hard race with the two Ferraris ahead of us, we will do our best to catch them. It is important to qualify up the grid at Suzuka and now that we have achieved that we will push as hard as we can.
Fernando Alonso - 5thIt's great to be so far up the grid. We've been competitive all weekend, especially today, and we were confident that we could have a result like this. It was very windy out there but the car balance still felt good throughout the afternoon and we were very competitive. I was very quick throughout qualifying and I could have made it into the top three, but I missed out by a few hundredths. Still we have a very strong car for the race tomorrow so I'm happy both for myself and for the team. Obviously we are keen to record a strong result at our home race so we will fight from the start to finish. We appreciate the extra support that we receive at this race from our local fans and employees so we will hope to reward them with something to cheer.
Giancarlo Fisichella - 6thIn the context of the characteristics we have seen today, this result is OK I think. We more or less knew that qualifying would be difficult for us after this morning's practice session, because we didn't have enough pace on one lap. We have done the maximum though, and I am the leading Michelin car ? with Fisi right alongside me. The car feels good to drive round here, so now we have to believe in the Michelin tyres and their consistency in the race. Of course, the position is not ideal for the championship fight ? but we have seen big turnarounds already this season. There is nothing to say it cannot happen again tomorrow.
Jenson Button - 7thWe did all we could this afternoon in qualifying, we just needed more pace on one lap. The grip levels were not fantastic, which meant that the balance was a bit inconsistent ? some high-speed understeer and nervousness in slow corners. But as the grip improves, that will calm down, and we know that the R26 will be consistent for the whole race distance. The main thing is that in spite of a difficult day, we are not giving up. Fernando and I will be pushing really hard tomorrow.
Rubens Barrichello - 8thI would obviously have liked to be further up the grid here but we made the best of what we had today. On low fuel the car was very good but as soon as we put the fuel in we were struggling for rear grip. For some reason, in these windy conditions, the car doesn't work so well but we're expecting it to be a lot calmer tomorrow. I think it will be a tough race but I know we will have tremendous support from the Honda fans out there and we will do everything we can to secure a good result.
TeamsI would like to thank all the boys for doing a tremendous job. When the circumstances are not working in your favour it's very difficult, but we have done the best job we can. Thanks to the hard work of the team I was able to qualify well inside the top ten today. This is obviously our home race so we will be giving it everything we have tomorrow in order to secure the best possible result and to put on a good show for our home crowd.
Toyota - Pascal VasselonA great all-red front row, which comes at a crucial moment in the season. Felipe secured a really good pole position on a track which highlights driver talent. Bridgestone has brought excellent tyres here and
it is not a fluke that the top four cars on the grid are all on the Japanese rubber. We know how important tyre performance will be in determining the final result and today it was clear that the overall package is in
excellent shape. Now the biggest step of the weekend awaits and by that I mean the 53 race laps. The key factors will be the same as ever: apart from the aforementioned tyres, they are the work of the team and
drivers, reliability and strategy. We will have to be perfect in every area to achieve our objectives.
Renault - Pat SymondsThis is our best qualifying result of the season and a very different story compared to China. But we knew what went wrong in Shanghai so we were always confident that we were able to put in a performance like this. We saw early in the weekend that our car was well balanced and fast around one lap in all types of conditions. So this is confirmation of the potential of our car because you need a good car to be fast around Suzuka. You also need good drivers as both Ralf and Jarno are. They did well so it has been a fine day for us. We were very strong in Q1 and Q2 and we preserved a set of tyres so we could have two outings on new tyres in Q3, which is definitely the best tactic. The wind was not a problem for the drivers, which is another good indication of the car's quality. We must also give a big thank you to Bridgestone because the tyres are working very well, both in terms of the first lap and consistency. As for the race, we are on the optimal strategy according to our calculations, so we are in good shape and looking forward to tomorrow.
Honda - Gil de FerranWe often say that relative performance is what matters in Formula 1, and that has surprised us today. While we can draw some consolation from being the fastest Michelin runners, that thought does not help in the battle with our main rivals Ferrari. In yesterday's low temperatures we looked competitive, and things have become more difficult as track temperatures rose some ten degrees today. Certainly the grid suggests that these higher temperatures were not perfectly suited to our tyre over one lap, but it should be borne in mind that qualifying is just a means to an end. The key to success in tomorrow's race will be finding the right balance between aggression and damage limitation, and we are hopeful that our tyres will bring us the consistency we need in the race.
BMW Sauber - Mario TheissenOur results in this session were satisfactory. In the end we were the second fastest team on Michelins so far this weekend and we are in a good place for the start of the race. Given the issues that Rubens was having this morning, we elected to change him to the spare chassis. As a result he was much happier and fought hard to secure his place in the top ten. Jenson was very fast throughout qualifying and got everything out of the car this afternoon. We shall see how the different strategies play out tomorrow but hopefully we can put on a good show in front of Honda's many fans!
Williams - Sam MichaelRobert missed the third part of qualifying by a small margin, as on his decisive lap he went off the track so was 12th. Nick, as in his recent races, made it into the top ten. In the third part of qualifying the weather played a part as, due to the light rain, we stopped our long run to fit new tyres for our fast lap. Finally Nick qualified 9th, and from our starting positions I think we can do well.
McLaren - Ron DennisIt?s good to get one car in the top ten. It?s pretty clear that Bridgestone have the advantage here and there are no problems on the car, so now we?ll work on strategy tonight to see how we can get some points tomorrow. Nico made it easily into Q3, Mark has flexibility on his fuel strategy and all the systems on the cars are working correctly, so we?re hoping for a good race.
Toro Rosso - N/AVery much a qualifying that was dominated by tyres. Clearly our choice, which we thought was right after this morning's session, was in fact wrong. This was compounded by a strong performance from Michelin's competition. The race will be very much influenced by the weather and maybe with an optimal fuel load and better race performance from our tyre selection we can still aim for a good result
Red Bull - Christian HornerA mixed qualifying session today with terrible luck for Tiago incurring a car problem early in Q1 meaning he could not complete a competitive time on new tyres. Christijan faired better finding his way into Q2 with another excellent lap. We took a more tactical approach to Q2 and expect a strong race tomorrow. The car has been well balanced in the dry and both drivers are confident that our Bridgestone tyres will offer us good race performance tomorrow.
Super Aguri - Aguri SuzukiBoth drivers struggled today with performance on new tyres. The longer runs this morning were reasonable, but the car lacked pace on new tyres and it's obviously frustrating to qualify 17th and 18th. The circuit seems to favour Bridgestone at the moment,
however hopefully some variable conditions in the race tomorrow will allow us to progress through the field and we'll be working hard on our strategy this evening.
We pushed hard to develop our car for this race and have brought many new aero developments to Suzuka. I want to thank everyone in the team for all of their hard work, but we need to improve greatly on our car performance because it is still not enough. Taku and the boys did a great job today and it is unfortunate that Sakon stalled during Qualifying. Looking forward to tomorrow, we will give it 110% and hope that we have a good race here at Suzuka.