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2005 French 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
"The grid this afternoon is very close, much as we had expected – and we saw with Giancarlo how a small mistake can prove costly on a single timed lap. We have both cars in the top six for tomorrow, and they were well balanced on the qualifying laps. We expect temperatures tomorrow to be much higher, but the cars are looking after their tyres well, and we do not anticipate this will be a factor during the race. All in all, this gives us a very satisfying starting point for the race."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Toyota ( Jarno Trulli - 2nd, Ralf Schumacher - 12th )

Dieter Gass - Chief Race Engineer
"Obviously we are very pleased to have yet another front row position from Jarno. It's happened so often that we have to say that he did his usual lap performance, but it was very good. He looks quite strong for the race as well, especially starting from second. Unfortunately Ralf suffered again from being the first car out. He had a small lock-up on one of his wheels at the Adelaide corner which cost him some time. Without that he would have been in the top ten. So overall we can be very happy with today's work. We are confident with our race strategy so we are looking forward to a very strong race tomorrow."

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McLaren Mercedes ( Kimi Raikkonen - 3rd (drops to 13th due to engine change), Juan Pablo Montoya - 9th )

RON DENNIS
"Taking into account the necessity for a race strategy designed to accommodate the 10-place penalty resulting from Kimi's engine failure yesterday his qualifying lap was sensational. This together with a good start should see him with a chance to take a podium position tomorrow. Juan Pablo suffered a little from being early out on the circuit and consequential lack of grip, but irrespective of this he too should have a strong race performance."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

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

Jean Todt: “It was a very closely contested qualifying session as can be seen from the fact that the top nine drivers are all within the same second. Thanks to the work we did last week along with Bridgestone, we were in a position to fight for a place in the top three rows. Obviously, there is still a question mark over what fuel load the other drivers were on and we will only have the answer to that tomorrow afternoon. In the race, the key factors will be reliability, consistency of tyre performance, the effectiveness of our strategy and of course, the ability of our drivers.”

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

BAR Honda (Takuma Sato - 5th, Jenson Button - 8th )

GIL DE FERRAN, SPORTING DIRECTOR "We are reasonably happy with our qualifying today. Both Taku and Jenson had clean laps and made the most of the car. The weather was quite different today which made for an interesting challenge setting the cars up this morning. If you look at the qualifying times it's easy to see how close everyone is, which should make for a very exciting race tomorrow."

Full Team and Driver Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Sauber ( Felipe Massa - 10th, Jacques Villeneuve - 11th )

Peter Sauber (Team Principal): "This was a good qualifying session and we have both cars in the top 10 on the grid for the first time in 2005. This is especially satisfying as in the past the Magny-Cours circuit has not always taken a liking to us! Both drivers achieved strong performances that confirm that the upward performance trend of the C24 continues."

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Williams BMW ( Mark Webber - 13th, Nick Heidfeld - 14th )

Sam Michael (Technical Director, WilliamsF1): Normally we would have hoped for a better qualifying result. We have made some progress on set-up but we have generally struggled here to get the best out of the car. Now we will see where everyone is once the strategies come into play tomorrow. It looks like it could be quite warm on race day. Our long runs during practice were reasonable so we will be fighting for points 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 - 19th )

ADRIAN BURGESS, SPORTING DIRECTOR “Both drivers had good and bad parts about their qualifying lap. Narain had a good first sector but then he made a few mistakes in the middle and recovered in the last one. Tiago was not too bad in the first sector but then he made a mistake in the last corner. I think we are in good shape for tomorrow. As normal, we have concentrated on the race tomorrow and we are reasonably happy with our situation.”

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Minardi ( Patrick Friesacher - 18th, Christijan Albers - 20th )

PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth
“Today Minardi completed all its preparations for Sunday’s French Grand Prix, with both cars performing well throughout the practice sessions and qualifying. It’s interesting to see that there is really nothing between us and our nearest rival, Jordan, in terms of lap times, and we look forward to an interesting race tomorrow.”

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Bridgestone

Hisao Suganuma, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport, said: “Unfortunately Ferrari didn’t quite make pole today but we were certainly pleased to see both drivers in touch with the front runners and I’m looking forward to seeing the performance of the car-tyre package in the race tomorrow. The first of this morning’s practice sessions was still damp from the overnight and early morning rain, resulting in very little running. Of the Bridgestone runners, only Minardi set a few timed runs because conditions were too dry for the wet tyres and too wet for the dry tyres. The teams were able to get some dry tyre running in the next session and we got a glimpse of the potential of our tyre performance in that session. Magny-Cours can be tough because of rear tyre degradation but I think we look in good, competitive shape at the moment. We have good consistency which will benefit all three Bridgestone teams.”

Full Bridgestone Qualifying Report  Back to Top

Michelin

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director “Our partners have performed extremely well since the start of the weekend and today’s result is a source of great satisfaction for the whole Michelin team.
“This morning’s rain affected the track a little. When conditions dried out, lap times weren’t particularly slower than before but the circuit became more abrasive, so one or two teams briefly had graining problems although this was to be expected. Conditions have since stabilised and I think we will be in excellent shape for tomorrow’s race.”

Full Michelin Qualifying Report  Back to Top

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