Saturday June 17th, 2000

Ferrari

Michael Schumacher: "That was a very exciting session, with me being fastest, then losing it and getting it back again. Towards the end, I was told on the radio that Coulthard was quickest and I was told to keep pushing. I was at turn 10 at the time, which was maybe not the best time to talk! But I did not know what time I had to beat, so I just went for it. The wind was a big factor. It was a side wind and so it affected the downforce and it was difficult to predict its effect. I am very happy that Rubens is third and I think we are well prepared for the race."

Rubens Barrichello: "I am happy to be third, even if was a bit unlucky. In fact, I had to interrupt my second run because of the red flags and then at the end of the session I had a problem with traffic. The strategy for my last run allowed for the possibility of doing two timed laps, but it was not possible. My time does not reflect the potential of the car, because I could at least have been on the front row. First and third for Ferrari is a good result. I am very optimistic for the race as my car is going really well."

Jean Todt: "We have secured our fourth pole position of the season, with this Michael’s third. It confirms the good performance level of our car. Today the outcome was not decided until the very last moment. The result is an important step for the weekend but now we must think about tomorrow. It will be a very tough and close race. Reliability, especially as far as engines and brakes are concerned, will be the determining factor."

McLaren

David Coulthard: "It would be nice to be on pole but I knew it was going to be a close session. Generally, Ferrari have been stronger on a single lap than we have been - but we have been strong in the races, so I hope that continues."

Mika Hakkinen: "I had a trouble-free qualifying session but seemed to lose time at the hairpin. To start the race from fourth is not ideal but it's not too bad either. You don't score points in qualifying, only in the race - we will wait and see what happens tomorrow."

Ron Dennis: "It was clear throughout the earlier practice sessions that the battle for pole was going to be very close. Today's session was interesting and great entertainment for the spectators but slightly less so for the team. David's pace this weekend clearly demonstrates that we are capable of winning the race. Mika never got a perfect lap but still starts from a position from which he can win."

Jordan

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: "A place in the top six is where we want to be. It was difficult because the conditions had changed since the morning. The wind picked up for qualifying and a tail wind was noticeable under braking for the hairpin at the far end of the circuit. I almost lost the car there but managed to keep everything together and get in the good lap we needed in order to be close to McLaren and Ferrari. It's always a tough race here - and usually a very exciting one. But I just hope it doesn't get too exciting! There's always a lot of retirements and we have to make sure we're not among them."

Mike Gascoyne: "As always it's frustrating not to be closer, but we'll settle for the third and fifth rows of the grid. Jarno was unhappy with his car compared to this morning. He suddenly found there was no grip and, obviously, that's been frustrating for him after setting competitive times throughout practice. Heinz-Harald made changes to his car, which worked well and he did a very good job in the tricky conditions. Obviously, it's frustrating not to be closer to the McLarens and Ferraris but we'll settle for the third and fifth rows. We're well-placed to take advantage of any problems they may have. Sixty-nine laps of this circuit can be very tough."

BAR

Jacques Villeneuve: "I'm very happy. The team did a great job today and the possibility of scoring points tomorrow is looking very good, although I'm sure we can fight for a podium as well because the car is very good on old tyres. We actually started qualifying with tyres with a lot of laps on them because we preferred them like that. My best lap this afternoon wasn't very good. There were a few places where we didn't carry enough speed, but even without that, the most we would have gained is one place, so our result is pretty close to what would have been our best possible position."

Arrows

Pedro de la Rosa: "I feel the best I have done all season. The last lap was extremely good with no mistakes and I pushed very hard and for me it was especially good after I struggled in free practice. To come from so low to so high is an achievement so I feel very good for the team. The car was excellent in qualifying and I feel pleased with myself for pulling up so well and we found time in many areas".

Jos Verstappen: "I think my race car felt pretty good in qualifying but I made a mistake on the kerb as I hit it probably a little bit too hard and there was a some over steer so that's why I went off. I then had to get in the t-car which was running for the first time on the circuit so it's difficult as you have to find brake balance and that sort of thing. The T-car didn't feel too bad but we just didn't have enough time to adjust it".

Tom Walkinshaw: "Pedro worked extremely hard to pull his position up so well, but it was very unfortunate for Jos as he deserved better. The car is running well though so we still have a good chance in the race".

Benetton

Giancarlo Fisichella: "Like this morning we weren't able to find the right set-up and were really lacking grip, so I wasn't able to push as hard as I needed to which would have been at least a few tenths quicker. I'm disappointed at starting from the fifth row tomorrow but the car runs much better on a high fuel load so I'm confident of having a strong race."

Alexander Wurz: "It was a frustrating session with the red flag interrupting one of my runs, then having to stop twice on the weighbridge meant I lost a lot of time and couldn't make any set-up changes. Also we struggled a little with engine power so I was 5 km down on my tean mate on the straight."

Flavio Briatore: "We certainly aren't happy with our qualifying performance. We didn't get the most out of the tyres and struggled with the set-up. We just hope to improve for the race tomorrow."

Pat Symonds: "Qualifying today was all about using the tyres correctly. This is a very hard tyre for this circuit and consequently needs to be managed carefully. I don't feel we got the best out of the tyres today and I am disappointed with the qualifying position."

Jaguar

Johnny Herbert: "I think on Friday we were running less fuel than some other people. But the thing was we sort of improved the car with the track. We did a little bit of that this morning, but not as much. I did a 1:20.0 this morning, and basically that seemed to be all I could do. Then in qualifying I did a 1:19.9, so I think I just found the limit of the car. We tried a lot of things this morning, and we tried quite a few things for qualifying. It kind of made it a bit better here and a bit worse there, but as an overall package it was basically the same. At the time I thought the colder conditions in the morning might be a problem, and maybe when it got warmer it might come our way, but now I have to say that wasn't the case. I think we'll be better in a race situation, so from that point of view it shouldn't be too bad. It's normally high in attrition here, although I must say reliability has been good for most teams this year. But you've also got a lot of chances for drivers to make mistakes. Hopefully I won't, and I can get something from that. It's going to be hard, it's probably going to be very close, and it's probably going to be a train. We'll see how it goes."

Eddie Irvine: "We just did something wrong. This morning I did 1:20.0s, with 0.6s worth of fuel on board. So to go 0.5 second slower in qualifying effectively means we lost 1.1s altogether. It doesn't make sense. We had a bit of a problem with the brakes this morning and we changed them for qualifying, but there's no issue there. We made a mistake fundamentally with the car, and we didn't have time to go back. I was losing 0.5s in T3, which was ridiculous."

Gary Anderson: "We just can't get the car to work well on new tyres. We just couldn't get the grip out of them. We were all right this morning on old tyres and theoretically new tyres should be faster, but it didn't happen."

Williams

Ralf Schumacher: "I am not happy with my qualifying result. After the morning session I expected to be within the top six positions, unfortunately I finished only 12th. Now we will sit down to analyse what happened and hopefully we will find a good solution for tomorrow's race. With regards to my injured leg I don't have any problem."

Jenson Button: "Not a good qualifying at all, today. On my first lap out of the pits I found a very dirty track, including some plastic bags taken by the wind, then I had to abort the second run because of the red flag. After that, I couldn't achieve a better time because my car suffered some problems with the fuel pick up system, the engine would cut out whenever I was going at full revs."

Patrick Head: "Really we were not in good shape on Friday and maybe corrected some of the problems but nothing like enough so we just have to concentrate on trying to have a reliable race tomorrow. Technical problems on Jenson's car meant that he really didn't have a fair crack at qualifying."

Prost

Jean Alesi: "Unfortunately, this was another session in which we had problems. Overall, the car handled reasonably well, and we were making progress, but on my third run, my engine failed. I am very disappointed with my grid position and I hope that we will soon find the way to change things."

Nick Heidfeld: "This morning everything was going pretty well, despite my lack of practice yesterday, when my engine broke in the second session, and I lost 25 minutes of testing. "Unfortunately, I had to switch to the T-car this afternoon because when I spun over a kerb this morning, I damaged the chassis more than I thought. For some reason, the T-car did not behave at all in the same way as my racecar and of course, even though we made some changes to the set-up, we were running out of time to improve the car during the qualifying. I am all the more disappointed because I really felt I had the potential to push this morning before my engine blew."