McLaren

Mika Hakkinen: "David was a real threat to me here today and I knew he could go quicker right up to the end. But, I think he was caught in traffic on his final run and I am very pleased to have taken pole by just 0.022 of a second. This is the first time I have been able to qualify at Imola on pole - David beat me last year - so I am very happy about it."

David Coulthard: "It was a very close session today and like everyone else I was looking for a clear lap in order to get a good time. Unfortunately pole position just slipped away from me on the last section of the last lap but that’s life. Whilst it is always disappointing not to be on pole I am sure that I will have a good race starting from the front row."

Ron Dennis: "A trouble free but very interesting practice with a well executed strategy. The competition is clearly closer but we are looking forward to the race."

Norbert Haug: "This qualifying session was a Saturday thriller. An outstanding achievement by both drivers and the team. I expected a close result and therefore I am very happy with the outcome of today’s qualifying."

Ferrari

Michael Schumacher: "This is a lot better than Brazil, because being only two tenths behind pole is closer than I had expected. But I am a bit disappointed with my own performance. I did not manage to drive a perfect lap . I could have gone better and pole position was within my reach. I must thank everyone in the team who worked day and night and did a great job of developing the car since the last race. This means we are in good shape for the tomorrow. Let's wait and see what happens."

Eddie Irvine: "I am quite happy with my position, but less so with my time. I lost half my quick laps because of yellow flags and in those conditions it is difficult to improve. I used the new front wing today and it has made a slight improvement to the car. I know what we have to do for tomorrow's race set-up. We are getting closer to our main rivals, as I said we would and we are in a much better situation now than we were at the same time last season."

Jean Todt: "Today we have both our cars on the second row of the grid with a much reduced gap to our main rivals. This proves that all our hard work since the last race has paid off. After yesterday's practice our target was the second row, but for a while it looked as though we might have a car on the front row. We came very close. I think it will be an open race tomorrow. We will try and put on a good show in front of all our fans and the staff of the Race Department who will be here tomorrow in a special grandstand."

British American Racing

Jacques Villeneuve: "It's been a long time since I have had such a good qualifying lap. I am very pleased because this is the first time since the start of the season that we've been able to push the car without having to make many changes. I could always push it harder and harder and the car reacted well because we had a very good set-up. We are confident for Sunday but it's a long and hard way to the finish. The guys in front of me are definitely quicker, but in general we've been better during the race than in qualifying. So let's hope it will be the same on Sunday and that we will finish the race."

Mika Salo: "I am happy for Jacques, but I am disappointed because I had hoped to do as well also and did not expect to qualify in 19th position. We did have a really good car all weekend, but after the first run we had a hydraulic pressure problem and I had to get in the spare car which was set up for Jacques who has a very different driving style to me. But I am used to starting from the back of the grid so I hope to have a good race and try for a good result."

Craig Pollock: "The team has been great all weekend and the car looks as if it's getting there. We had a little bit of a worry in first session this morning, but the work of the engineers and the drivers has been exceptional. Reliability is obviously getting better so it is a question of carrying on in the right direction. Mika's situation was very unfortunate. It turned out to be a hydraulics problem which is beyond our control and he only had one lap in a car that was set up for Jacques. Considering all that, Mika has done a good job."

Denis Chevrier, Race Support Manager, Supertec: "Today we introduced the A-spec engine for all our three teams. It has worked fine and we are particularly pleased that Jacques was able to exploit it by securing a very encouraging fifth place. We are very satisfied as it seems that there is very good potential."

Stewart

Rubens Barrichello: "I was quite aggressive on my last lap which was full of incidents. I hit the kerb quite hard at Rivazza and then the lap was further spoiled by a slower car. The best I could have managed today was a 1.27.3 which would have moved me up one place. Provided I make a good start and we run reliable I expect to be in the points and hopefully finish on the podium."

Johnny Herbert: "I was not able to reproduce the times I did this morning which is difficult to understand because the car felt fine. I will say though that I know a bit more about the car's characteristics - I guess I just didn't use that information very well this afternoon. I'm expecting a strong race. It's just going to be a little more difficult from the grid position I'm in."

Paul Stewart, Deputy Chairman: "The third row of the grid at Imola is not a bad place to be starting from for Rubens. It would have been more satisfying to have both cars near the front of the grid. We were expecting that to be the case after what Rubens and Johnny achieved this morning. But it didn't work out for Johnny in qualifying. Nonetheless we have shown that our performance level has not dropped since Brazil"

Martin Whiteaker, Director Ford Racing Europe: "Another solid performance from the Stewart-Ford team - once again illustrating the progress made since last season. We have been working hard to develop both driveability and reliability of the engine. Both drivers have commented on the improved driving performance of the engine and we hope for reliability in the race tomorrow."

Jordan

Heinz Harald Frentzen: "I think it would have been possible to go quicker as the car felt very good but we had a small technical problem which interrupted the session. I had a broken pushrod on my third run and so I lost a set of tyres. Things like this happen though, and our position on the grid is not bad. The car feels good and I am not concerned about tomorrow - I think we can do well."

Damon Hill: "The balance of the car was good, but I made a mess of my last run so spoilt any chance of being higher up the grid. It was very close and although we had hoped to do better than this, I am still optimistic we can do well in the race. Our race performance has been stronger than qualifying performance and the reliability and race set up of the car are good."

Williams

Ralf Schumacher: "Today we really worked hard and I am sure we got the best out of the car. We achieved very similar times in the four runs and I am sure we could not do any better. Of course I was expecting a slightly better result after yesterday's times, but nonetheless I am looking forward to putting in a good performance in tomorrow's race and I hope that once again we can score some points as we did in the first two grands prix."

Alex Zanardi: "I am quite happy, as finally we have had a much better day than since the beginning of the season. Well, to be honest we had a few problems this morning, in the free practice, but the qualifying was quite satisfying. My wish is to keep the same level of performance throughout the whole of tomorrow's race. From Monday we will be back to our work in order to improve our results in the forthcoming races."

Patrick Head, technical director: "These are slightly disappointing grid positions as we thought it might be possible to be a little bit higher, even if it's very close to the level that we can expect to achieve. I think we probably have to make some slight changes to the car tonight to find the best set up for the race. The challenge for us is to try to get two cars to the finish and two cars in the points, which we haven't achieved so far, this year."