Saturday August 28th, 1999

McLaren

Mika Hakkinen: "It was, as ever, a great team effort which helped me to achieve my tenth pole of the season. This is not an easy circuit and you have to find the balance not only of the car, but also of knowing where to push and where to compromise on a lap, in order to put in a quick time. The accidents that we witnessed during qualifying looked pretty serious shunts on the TV but I am very glad that both BAR drivers are fine."

David Coulthard: "I enjoyed the session as the car was going well and we were constantly making improvements. However, whatever I did, Mika seemed to improve upon. I made further changes to the set up for my last run which I think would have seen me improve on my time, but I made a small mistake and that cost me the quicker lap. The start will be very important tomorrow as the first corner is notorious for incidents but ultimately the race will come down to strategy and pit stops."

Ron Dennis: "A trouble free qualifying session for us. The red flags of course caused disruption to the rhythm but that was the same for everyone and fortunately I don't think that made any considerable difference to the final outcome."

Norbert Haug: "A very good session for us with Mika achieving his tenth pole position of the year. David was second, just one and a half tenths of a second behind. This was a great effort by the whole team. Having not had any problems so far in Spa I hope we continue tomorrow in the same way."

Jordan

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: "I was sure we would be up at the front but also knew it would be hard to catch the McLarens, so I am very happy with today's result. It was unlucky for me that Villeneuve and Zonta crashed, but what matters is that they are OK. It meant I really only had two runs as the red flags interrupted me on two outings. So I did not have the chance to find the perfect set-up for the session and I think I could perhaps have done a low 1m 51s or high 1m 50s if I had managed to fine tune the car. But I think we have a really good chance tomorrow with Damon and me both on the second row of the grid. It is a great effort from the team and it is nice to be so strong here. We can be proud of this result."

Damon Hill: "This is a great result for the team. It really shows that Jordan is going in the right direction. The car is particularly suited to this track, but Mugen-Honda has worked to give us more power so we are looking strong. I am very happy, although perhaps a little disappointed, as it was very close between me and Heinz. But he's a damned good driver, so to come that close is pretty good. Spa is a great track which really gets the adrenaline flowing and when you have a good go, you can have a good thrash out there! If you qualify on the front two rows, you always have a good chance in the race and we are ahead of the Ferraris and they are fighting for the championship!"

Eddie Jordan: "This is a great performance. It is wonderful to see the two drivers fighting it out for the grid positions. I thought our qualifying performance here last year was good but is even better."

Williams

Ralf Schumacher: "I am happy with my position even though after this morning's practice I could have hoped to do slightly better, although an Arrows slowed me down on my fastest lap. Also, if we consider that my qualifying time is only a couple of hundredths away from third place, I must be pleased. Of course, it is good to start from fifth place on the grid, as I never qualified better than eighth so far this year so I can hope to be in the points tomorrow or? something even better!"

Ferrari

Eddie Irvine: "I did not expect to be one and a half seconds off pole. What is worse is that another team has also slipped between us and our usual rivals. The feeling in the car was better today than yesterday, although I had some understeer on my last run. I could have gone quicker except that I was slowed by traffic. But the car is simply not quick enough and we now have to work very hard to improve it and make it faster for the quick tracks coming up in the next few races. As for tomorrow, strategy will be very important and my target will be to get on the podium."

Mika Salo: "My car was very slow and I just could not get the maximum performance out of it. I hope this will be less of a problem in race trim as the car felt good with a heavy fuel load this morning. I also wasted two sets of tyres as I was out on the track when both Villeneuve and Zonta had their accidents. This meant I only had one good run. That could have been a little bit better, but not by two seconds. It is hard to pin-point the problem on the car as it is a combination of several little things. We have a reliable car, so I can still have a good race."

Jean Todt: "Of course this qualifying result is very disappointing. This is one of Eddie's worst grid positions of the season. We were never able to use one hundred percent of the car's potential. Certainly the incidents which caused the session to be stopped twice did us no favours. On the start grid, other cars have come between us and our closest rivals and this will not make for an easy race. Anyway, we must think about tomorrow in a positive frame of mind and do everything we can to improve the situation."

Stewart

Rubens Barrichello: "I think it was a combination of the tyres I used for my last run helping the balance of the car and the fact that the pressure was on me to produce something special at the end. On my first three runs the car was not handling well at all particularly in the slower sections. I had a bit of a moment when my foot slipped off the brake pedal onto the throttle and I went straight on at Malmedy. All in all it was a pretty eventful session. I'd like to be higher up but I'm satisfied given the way the weekend has been going for me so far."

Johnny Herbert: "I was just about to start my flying lap when Villeneuve had his off and the red flag came out but I was on old tyres so it didn't affect me at all. I got the lap back anyway. After being in the top seven during yesterday and today's practice I had expected to start the race from the third row. However the car seems to be in good shape and I'm hoping for a good race tomorrow."

Paul Stewart, Chief Operating Officer: "There was a mild sense of relief with Rubens posting a good lap at the end and Johnny did well to stay in the top 10 but we have to admit that we thought our package would have enabled us to be higher placed. We will have to determine where we lost pace relative to our rivals."

Martin Whitaker, Director, Ford Racing, Europe: "We were hoping for better today following our good form at the Silverstone test session last week and Johnny's pace this morning. Still, we encountered no problems today, and we remain confident of a good performance tomorrow."

BAR

Jacques Villeneuve: "I was going flat out through Eau Rouge and when the rear started to go, I just couldn't hold it. I hit the barriers very hard but the tyres absorbed a lot of the shock. There was no mechanical failure, but our cars are not easy to drive and they are quite nervous at the rear. I was simply trying too hard and the car got away from me."

Ricardo Zonta: "The accident happened very quickly and I really don't know why. I was adjusting slightly for the corner, I didn't feel any oversteer, but then the back came round so quickly I had no chance to correct it. I am perfectly okay though, and will race on Sunday."

Craig Pollock: "We are all very relieved that both our drivers are unhurt, thanks to the strong construction of these cars. Both accidents happened so quickly that neither driver is able to say exactly what happened. We don't believe this was a failure and our telemetry does not suggest it was; however, we will examine the cars very closely to try to determine the cause. In the meantime we will use the test cars which are coming straight here from the factory."