Total
practice mileage Alonso, 51 laps, 223 km Fisichella, 50 laps, 220 km
Qualifying Alonso, P6, 1:21.141 Fisichella,
P9, 1:21.333
A disappointing afternoon for the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team in qualifying for the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix.
After qualifying laps in which both Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella failed to extract the car's full potential, they will
start sixth and ninth respectively in tomorrow's race. Although the handling balance of the R25 has not been perfect through the
weekend, the car nevertheless demonstrated enough innate speed to have qualified on the first two rows. As ever, the team expects to
be more competitive in race conditions, but on a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult, both drivers expect a difficult
afternoon's work in the race.
Fernando Alonso, 6th position "It is frustrating to be P6 and P9, but we have not
quite been competitive all weekend. We didn't manage to dial the understeer out of the car for qualifying, so the balance was not
perfect, and I had a few moments round the lap. The one that really cost me time was in the last corner, where I got a bit off line
and the car began understeering – I ended up in the grass on the exit and that definitely cost me positions. It is particularly
disappointing to qualify badly here because overtaking is very hard – the only opportunities will be at the pit-stops and the
start. We will be concentrating on those areas tonight so that we can make the most of our situation tomorrow."
Giancarlo
Fisichella, 9th position "I had a clean lap, but I think I was too conservative in the final sector – and it clearly
cost me time. Ninth is not a great position, but in reality we have been struggling a bit to get the car working well at this
circuit. Looking to tomorrow, I think we have a good strategy, so hopefully we can use that to overtake people at the stops – and
we had very good starts in Hockenheim, which should help us gain some positions too."
Pat Symonds, Executive
Director of Engineering "A disappointing qualifying session for the team. Fernando lost four grid positions in the final
corner, while Giancarlo also missed out on a position by just three hundredths of a second. As always, we feel confident in our race
pace and the preparations we have made for the race tomorrow, which will certainly be run in extremely hot conditions. We are
looking forward to a more competitive showing in the Grand Prix than we achieved this afternoon."
Denis Chevrier,
Head of Engine Operations "Clearly, sixth and ninth positions on the grid are well below our expectations, but we know that
the smallest mistakes can prove costly in qualifying – and we fell victim to that today. Fernando will have the added disadvantage
of starting on the dirty side of the track, so all in all, this was not the afternoon we had hoped for. However, we are confident in
the preparations we have made for the race and the cars showed encouraging speed on their laps, mistakes aside. The surprise of the
afternoon was certainly to see Schumacher on pole by such a margin – which presumably indicates that a range of strategies will be
used tomorrow afternoon. We will now concentrate on our race planning, in order to achieve the best results possible from our
disappointing grid positions."
