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2005 British 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 preview click on the team name)

Renault ( Fernando Alonso - 1st, Giancarlo Fisichella - 7th )

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
"We saw another fantastic qualifying effort from Fernando this afternoon to claim his fourth pole position of the season. We should not forget though that Giancarlo put in a good effort considering the strategy he is running. Of course, we have benefited from Kimi's bad luck this morning but I am sure that like in Magny-Cours, we will soon see him in the hunt at the front of the field in race conditions."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

McLaren Mercedes ( Kimi Raikkonen - 2nd (drops to 12th due to engine change), Juan Pablo Montoya - 4th )

RON DENNIS
"The grid positions merely reflect our race strategy which, of course, in the end is what determines the outcome of the race. Both Kimi and Juan Pablo did exceptionally good jobs which, as in France, will only become apparent as the race unfolds."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

BAR Honda ( Jenson Button - 3rd, Takuma Sato - 8th )

GIL DE FERRAN, SPORTING DIRECTOR
"Being on the front row at your home Grand Prix is great. Jenson did a fantastic lap again with a car that improved throughout the weekend. Taku has recovered a lot of the lost ground from Friday, and did a good job to put himself on the 4th row. We are very much looking forward to the race tomorrow since not only are we starting high up the grid but the car has shown good consistency in all of the practice sessions."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Toyota ( Jarno Trulli - 5th, Ralf Schumacher - 9th )

Mike Gascoyne - Technical Director Chassis "We've had two pretty good days so far here at Silverstone. In fact, qualifying was probably our worst session of the weekend. But that was because our qualifying was very much aimed at a good strategy for tomorrow's race, and we're confident that will pay off. Jarno put in his normal excellent job on Saturday, putting in a similar time to the one he managed this morning. The only problem we had was that Ralf struggled to find the grip he had in the morning. But we're in a good position to have both cars scoring points and hopefully racing for the podium. It's been a very positive two days and now we have to look to finish it off tomorrow.

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Ferrari ( Michael Schumacher - 4th, Rubens Barrichello - 6th )

Jean Todt: “Sixth place for Rubens and tenth for Michael is how the qualifying session panned out for Ferrari. When looking at the overall picture, we have to take into account the unknown factor of how much fuel the others had on board. However, it is obvious that we are less than satisfied and that, starting from the third and fifth rows means we face a very difficult race tomorrow afternoon. We have a well balanced car and we know we can count on Bridgestone tyres that should deliver consistent performance throughout the race. This factor, along with strategy and overall reliability of the package will be the key tomorrow, as always in fact. Our most realistic target is to get both cars home in the points to keep the fight for both Championships open.”

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Sauber ( Jacques Villeneuve - 11th, Felipe Massa - 16th )

Willy Rampf (Technical Director): "Jacques lost a little bit in the first sector, but the second and third sectors were good. We put Felipe on a strategy that was suitable for his starting position for qualifying, as we knew that the track would not be at its peak in terms of grip. "Our target was to qualify in the top 10 and we achieved that, and though it is early days with it, the performance of our new aerodynamic package has been encouraging."

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Williams BMW ( Mark Webber - 12th, Nick Heidfeld - 14th )

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): The new bodywork, introduced in Magny-Cours, is a result of our aggressive development programme, which to date has delivered significant competitive gains. However, pushing hard sometimes means problems will arise. We continue to work at the factory and on track to find performance. For the British GP, the drivers have taken different directions. Mark will run the new configuration while Nick has decided to rely on a more conservative but validated bodywork configuration. We have a good strategy for the race and we look forward to the battle tomorrow.

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Red Bull ( David Coulthard - 15th, Christian Klien - 16th )

David Coulthard
“I’m disappointed. I was hoping to produce a quicker time, something in the one minute 15s, but that’s all we could achieve today. The track was a little greasy this morning, so I was being cautious. I dropped a couple of tenths of a second in the first sector, but where I really lost time was Turn eight, the downhill left-hander. The car felt more slippery on the track there than it had done this morning. The balance of the car has been working well all weekend, but we’ve been struggling to overcome some aggressive understeer.”

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Jordan ( Narain Karthikeyan - 17th, Tiago Monteiro - 20th )

ADRIAN BURGESS, SPORTING DIRECTOR
“Everything went pretty much as we expected it today. Narain did a good lap, which put us where we believe we are compared to Minardi. However, after this morning’s sessions, we thought we were going to be a bit quicker. Tiago did not do a time due to the unscheduled change of engine we had yesterday. We decided to do an installation lap only, to make sure that everything was ok with the car and we will be starting from the back of the grid tomorrow. Nevertheless, we are in good shape for the race, which should be very interesting.”

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Minardi ( Christijan Albers - 18th, Patrick Friesacher - 19th )

PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth
“Despite relatively trouble-free third and fourth practice sessions today, the team failed to capitalise on this in qualifying. Having said that, both cars have healthy fuel loads on board for tomorrow, and we therefore look forward to an interesting race.”

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Bridgestone

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport, said: “Rubens did a good job today and he’ll start from the third row tomorrow which should give him a chance of a strong race. A little disappointed with Michael’s qualifying time but we know he should have good race performance and Ferrari has a strong race strategy. He should be able to improve his position and compete with the front runners in the field. We are expecting the weather to be a little warmer, making tyre consistency important. In the practices we have seen some consistent times from the Ferrari drivers so I am expecting them to be strong in the race. Jordan and Minardi will have to work hard as they start from the back of the grid but they too have been running consistently so I expect them to be in with a chance of improving on their grid positions.”

Full Bridgestone Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Michelin

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director
“Track conditions have not altered a great deal since yesterday – an abrasive surface such as the one here at Silverstone is less prone to dramatic changes than some of the smoother surfaces Formula One cars race on.
“As always, the order might be shuffled a little tomorrow – it would be no surprise to see drivers attempting a two or three stop strategy – but it is clear that our tyres are extremely well suited to this ultra-demanding track.”

Full Michelin Qualifying Report  Back to Top

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