Qualifying session
Michael Schumacher: 4th 1.14.572 3 laps chassis 245
Rubens Barrichello: 6th 1.14.832 3 laps chassis 246
Temperatures: air 23° C, track 27° C

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.”

Michael Schumacher: “We felt we could do well here and I will now be starting from third on the grid which is a good position, even though I had hoped to be fighting for pole. Even so, this is a better position than we have found ourselves in at most of the races so far this season. The important thing is that we are looking good in race trim and so I expect we will have a strong pace tomorrow afternoon. It will be a tough race and it will be interesting to see how the various strategies work out. Let’s wait and see.”

Rubens Barrichello: “I had a really nice lap during which I pushed to the limit and I am happy with my performance. The only problem I had was a bit of graining on my front tyres towards the end of the lap. We did not see this happen in the morning so it was unexpected and I had to lift off a bit in Turn 13 because I had understeer and that lost me a bit of time. I said we could have a good race if we qualified in the top three rows and here we are, so I can be optimistic for tomorrow.”

Ross Brawn: “We looked reasonably competitive over the single lap, which is something we have been working to improve on all season. Today, we were fighting for pole, but we did not quite do it although the fact we were in a position to fight for it was encouraging. Neither driver managed to do a perfect lap, which was a shame. Nevertheless, I think we will be competitive tomorrow when our tyres should work well and deliver consistent performance. The balance of the cars was much better today, but we did not manage to capitalise on that this afternoon, although we seem to have a good race set-up.”

2005 French Grand Prix - Main Page
2005 French Grand Prix - Team and Driver Qualifying Reports Page

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