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Snowy wrote:Great coverage Ed, good to see your Bridgestones rubbered in!

Snowy wrote:We might see Mark on the front row yet! I reckon MS has pulled another one of his crafty stunts!

Ed wrote: Thanks! The last bit wasn't expected and the rules should be reviewed. They should have red flagged the session and added 2 minutes for those on flying laps to have another go. No one should be allowed to gain an advatange by making a mistake.

Ed wrote:

Snowy wrote:We might see Mark on the front row yet! I reckon MS has pulled another one of his crafty stunts!

I doubt Michael would be penalised unless they can prove Michael did this intentionally. It is really hard to say from the video replay.
Typically when a driver goes off with very little time left on the clock, the session isn't stopped but this is the first time this has happened with this type of qualifying.

The man is guilty just like he was in 94, 95 and 96!

We were very pleased with the performance of the cars throughout the session, but extremely surprised to see Michael make a suspicious mistake at the end of the super-pole that looked as if it had come from a novice driver ? not a world champion. There is no doubt that this cost us pole position, and both our drivers had their fastest laps spoiled.

We are certain it could have been even better, were it not for a very dubious incident involving Schumacher's Ferrari.

I would have been on pole for sure today, without the problem on the final lap. I think we had a very good strategy for qualifying and the performance from the Michelin tyres was fantastic. So to lose my fastest lap through an accident for somebody else is not a good moment, but I suppose these things happen in Monaco... For the race, I am optimistic that we have a good set-up, and something more in the Michelin tyres that will help us against our rivals. The car was excellent today, so I hope I can fight for the win tomorrow.

Saturday has turned out to be a reasonable day for us. We qualified pretty well in 3rd position and I think we were maybe improving a little bit until we got the yellow flag due to Michael Schumacher?s stoppage, which of course hurt everybody. Anyway, the crucial thing for us is the race and we want to get to the end and get some of the points that I think we deserve. It?s been a strong effort from the team in the last few days. We now need to capitalise on this starting opportunity, at a track where qualifying is so important.

I'm very happy with the car and was really able to push throughout qualifying. I believe that I could have claimed pole position, but then I hit traffic on my second and last flying lap ? but that is Monaco. We are still on the second row and with a good start and a strong strategy we are definitely in with a chance for a good result.

This qualifying session turned out pretty much as we expected, with a lot of traffic and then yellow flags on the last timed lap, when I found Schumacher in the middle of the penultimate corner. Fifth position is not what I had expected from qualifying today, but this is a long race where everything is possible. The balance of the car is good for the race, and the R26 has been easy to drive. I am still very confident for the race.

I struggled a bit with traffic as well as understeer, so could probably have qualified a bit higher up the grid. However we have a good car here and a strong strategy for the race, so we will see what happens. Third row is not the end of the world, and I'm confident that it should be a good Grand Prix which I'm looking forward to.

It was crazy out there, just like everybody predicted. I was trying very hard to avoid getting in other people's way and they were doing the same for me, which was nice to see. I want to thank the team for a fantastic job today and making the right decisions and quickly. 7th is not a bad place to start tomorrow and it should be an incredible race.

The team did a good job today but it was a tough qualifying session. We made some adjustments to the tuning to avoid a bit of understeer and the car reacted pretty well. It was hard work to find a good clear lap out there with the new qualifying format but we managed better than expected. At one stage in Q2 I was going even quicker when I was blocked by several cars in the middle of the lap, but we still made it through to Session 3. Then at the very end I was on the second of a two-lap run when I saw a yellow flag and the car in the middle of the track so I stopped my lap. In the end I'm happy with where I am as well as our race strategy. It is obviously difficult to judge a new car on this kind of circuit but first we have a tough Sunday ahead and I just hope we can run a good race tomorrow.

I'm actually really pissed off. I've had no traffic all weekend and
then, on my last flying lap, I got held up. Ninth is our position and I don't think it's the reward the team deserves for all their efforts this weekend. The car can go quicker and it would have been nice to have had a clear lap today. This circuit provides a real opportunity for us to get up the grid. No great surprise that Michael had to stop ?

?Q3 was not good for me today. I made it into the top ten and then traffic just prevented me from setting a faster lap. I was behind Coulthard when he was on a flying lap, but then he didn?t let me by when I was on my flying lap, and basically spoilt my qualifying. It?s a shame, because there was definitely more in the car today than a 10th place.

There was a lot of speculation before qualifying about how difficult the session would be in Monaco, and indeed it was a very fraught hour. A lot of judgement was needed as to when to use new tyres, but the management of the traffic was still largely down to luck. We were very pleased with the performance of the cars throughout the session, but extremely surprised to see Michael make a suspicious mistake at the end of the super-pole that looked as if it had come from a novice driver ? not a world champion. There is no doubt that this cost us pole position, and both our drivers had their fastest laps spoiled. Nevertheless, we have Fernando on the front row, and Giancarlo in fifth position. The car has been quick and easy to drive all weekend, and the Michelin tyres seem to be relishing the hot conditions. Everything looks extremely positive for tomorrow's race.

Mark did a fantastic job in qualifying and he will have a really strong race tomorrow. His last lap was almost two tenths faster before he had to back off to avoid Michael?s parked car so he would have been on the front row. Obviously it?s disappointing to have Nico in 10th position, he spent too much time in traffic. The car, tyre and engine performance is definitely strong here at Monaco. Our Bridgestone tyres are working well and we had no mechanical problems today.

Our grid positions and race strategy give us every chance to leave Monte Carlo with good results. Both Kimi and Juan Pablo put in solid laps but struggled with the Monaco traffic .We all look forward to the race tomorrow.

On the one hand we are quite happy about the way Rubens' qualifying went. There were some anxious moments at the end of Q2 and once into the last ten Rubens got everything possible out of the car. Unfortunately Jenson was not able to break into Q3. Things were going reasonably well for him but he ended with an unexpected amount of understeer on new tyres. We suspect there are quite varied strategies going into tomorrow, even more so than with other races. Given the importance of qualifying here we would rather be further ahead on the grid, particularly in Jenson's case. Nevertheless we look forward to a good fight tomorrow afternoon when hopefully we can collect some good points.

We were expecting a difficult morning because we decided to use the session to prepare for the race. So of course we were far back on the time sheets, but there were good reasons for that. We were effectively expecting to catch up this afternoon and that is what we did. As it turned out, it was less difficult than we expected to find clear laps. We were prepared to face any kind of situation and it went according to plan. Jarno's position is satisfying but he was blocked by yellow flags on his final lap while other drivers could continue their fast laps. It was a pity that Ralf just missed out on Session 3 but he is still in a decent position to do well in the race. We are happy with our tyre choice and now we have to look for a good result tomorrow.

David continued his good form this weekend. He went comfortably through the first part on an old set of tyres, set the fourth quickest time in the second part and was confident going into the third part. Ultimately, we are disappointed with ninth. David got held up on his flying lap and otherwise, we know he would have finished higher than that, so it's a little frustrating. Christian had a problem, which we hope to rectify ahead of tomorrow.

Qualifying didn?t come up to our expectations. The second sector was where both drivers lost most time, so they didn?t get into the top ten where we hoped to be. The reason for Nick stopping on the track is being investigated at the moment, but the situation didn?t have any impact on the result because top ten positions would have been difficult today.

Obviously, we're a little disappointed, because the form was there this morning. We wanted to get into Q2, and there was a good chance of doing that today. Both drivers did very well. Christijan gave the best performance he's given so far this weekend and was only a few tenths away from getting into the next session. Tiago was very close, as well. He lost half a second to traffic on his quickest lap. But that's the nature of the circuit and the way things work here. I'm sure other people could also say the same thing, but we could have got into Q2. The pace was there, but luck was against us a little bit. We've got to come away from this pleased with our performance level. The gap was the closest it's ever been to the guys ahead, and its further evidence that our continuing developments and improvements are being realised at the track.

I am happy with the progress that we have made so far this weekend. We have not made any errors during the practice or Qualifying sessions and I think that we reached the full potential of the car today. Both drivers did well to control the SA05?s and even though our starting positions are at the back of the grid as usual, our times are improving with every race. A small mistake of any kind on this tough circuit could have caused big problems, but both of our drivers, the mechanics and the engineers have done a great job here. Our next goal is to achieve a two-car finish again and Monaco would be the perfect place to do it.

Ed wrote:Michael Schumacher - Pole
To be added

Ed wrote:Ferrari
To be added

Jupiter wrote:It all looked fairly calculated to me, although I'd be surprised if Michael is punished by the stewards.

Ed,
What do you consider to be the likely outcome of the Stewards inquiry and at what point is a decision likely to be made?