Friday October 29th, 1999

McLaren

Mika Hakkinen: "Both sessions went well today. We worked through out race programme to find a good set-up and seem to have found a reasonable balance. That said, you can always go quicker and we will be looking to do that tomorrow in qualifying."

David Coulthard: "A productive morning until the moment of impact! As you would expect, I was pushing very hard on one corner, I went a bit wide and put one wheel on the curb which saw the car spin quicker than I could catch it. There is a fair amount of damage to the car, but I know that the team will work hard as always to fix it before tomorrow so I am looking forward to a competitive qualifying session."

Ron Dennis: "Apart from David's accident it was an uneventful day. The cars are working quite well and everyone is concentrating on the job in hand."

Norbert Haug: "A good start to the weekend as the team found a good baseline to improve on. David was very competitive before he lost his car but he will be alright tomorrow."

Ferrari

Michael Schumacher: "As expected, this track does not suit our car as well as the one in Malaysia, as it has many fast corners, whereas our car tends to go better in the slower ones. The track was also very slippery today and offered less grip than at the last race. Towards the end of the afternoon session, we found quite a good set-up, which is not reflected in the times, as the tyres were old by then. There is still room for improvement, so I am confident we can fight for pole tomorrow and a victory on Sunday."

Eddie Irvine: "I don't think things are as bad as they look from my lap time today. My main concern was a lack of grip. In this situation it is always difficult to balance the car and I suffered with mid-corner understeer, which switched to oversteer when I put the power down on the exit. Tomorrow with a different set up and fresh tyres, I am sure I can do better."

Jean Todt: "Today, our work centred on preparation for the race. Neither driver has yet found quite the right set-up or balance on the cars. Tomorrow, in both practice and qualifying, we will use the 048C version of the engine."

Stewart

Rubens Barrichello: "Suzuka is such a complicated layout and you need to find a balance to make it work well through the Esses, the high speed corners and the chicane. You have to have the car working in harmony in all three areas so you tend to do a bit of juggling on the set-up. We made a big step forward on set-up towards the end of the second session. There is still some work to do and I'm confident that we are heading in the right direction."

Johnny Herbert: "I expected to make an improvement when I went out on new tyres at the end but the engine cut out and a sensor warning light came on. The car is very nervous at the rear and we tried several setup changes to try and calm it down. We improved it towards the end of the session. The track is quite dirty particularly at 130R. However, looking at Rubens' time today I'm optimistic for qualifying."

Paul Stewart, Stewart-Ford Chief Operating Officer: "We made a lot of changes to set-up on both cars although we still haven't got it quite right yet. We are not too perturbed about Johnny's time because of the problem he had with his car on the new tyres. It was a typically busy Friday."

Tyrone Johnson, Technical Manager, Ford Racing Research and Vehicle Technology: "Both cars were running Series 3 engines and we will continue using this specification tomorrow. A sensor on Johnny's car showed a fault causing the engine to cut out towards the end of the second session and even though he managed to restart and make it back to the garage it was too late for him to put in a quick time."

Williams

Alessandro Zanardi: I was a bit surprised about the time I could set at the end of the session, because I feel that today's car is not handling well. At the same time, I think that everybody must have the same problems here because of a very dirty and slippery track. In reality, we have got to work very hard to set up the car for tomorrow's qualifying, because I don't believe we will be able to maintain the same position if we don't make changes.

Prost

Olivier Panis: "My practice session was divided truly into two parts. This morning, I had a lot of difficulty in finding the grip I needed and I did not have a good feeling on my first set of tyres. We studied some points between the two sessions and I went out again, always with a fuel load, having made some major changes to the front suspension. On my next set of tyres, it was satisfactory. We have still to refine some details before qualifying tomorrow, but we are going the right way and I am confident."

Jarno Trulli: "As the team asked, I did all my work professionally with a clear goal - to find the best set-up for my car using the same tyres in order to save one set for the weekend. In the same conditions as the other drivers, I was well-placed and this has given me confidence for tomorrow. At the end of the session, I did not improve my times contrary to those who went on to new tyres."

Alain Prost: "Today we accomplished a good day's work. The drivers both worked well in different directions, to give us the chance to gather a lot of information for the qualifying session. We still need to improve the driveability of the cars and to optimise the engines for low revs, this is the programme for tomorrow morning's free session. I think we should be able to have a competitive car to take a good grid position."

BAR

Jacques Villeneuve: "Although an oil leak this morning meant we didn't do enough work, we managed to do a full afternoon session to catch up. The grip here is very low and the tyres always seem too hard, but at the end of the session on new tyres, the car seemed pretty good. With some more work on the balance and if we manage to have a good day on Saturday, we can hope for a top-six qualifying result. I like Suzuka – it's a great track where you can have a lot of fun."

Ricardo Zonta: "It's my first time at Suzuka in F1 so I spent the morning on old tyres and didn't push at first because the car was very low and I didn't know its limit here. In the second session we put on new tyres, the car was a lot better and I found a lot of grip. Although the new tyres made a big difference I couldn't push too hard not knowing the limit of the car, so I maybe lost about half a second on my first flying lap."

Craig Pollock, Chairman & CEO: "After the initial problem this morning on Jacques' car, things went very well for him. Ricardo also did a good job once he had familiarised himself with the circuit."

Robert Synge, Team Manager: "We had no problems in the afternoon and are about where we expected to be after the first day. Ricardo did well although we maybe gave him new tyres a little too early, but he is quickly learning the circuit and should be higher up on Saturday."

Jordan

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: "The track was very slippery today and it was hard work to get a good lap," said Frentzen. "The grip level is a lot lower than last year. But it is the same for everyone and I think we will be competitive tomorrow."

Damon Hill: "It was difficult this afternoon because I was playing catch up after missing the morning session. You can't really afford to give away 20 laps of preparation. I was not happy at the start of the second session, but then I made some changes which I was pleased with and in the end I was happy with my lap time. I still could not find the right balance though - I just could not get the car to be consistent and found it hard to drive as a result."