French Grand Prix – Magny-Cours Qualifying session
MS 1.15.493
FM 1.15.510
Chassis: MS 254 FM 252
Temperatures: air 33/34 °C track 49/51 °C
Fourth pole position of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro,
after those obtained in Sakhir, Imola and Indianapolis all
of them with Michael Schumacher and the third all-red front
row this year. A Ferrari thus starts the French Grand Prix
from the top slot for the fifteenth time, bringing the total
of Formula 1 poles to one hundred and eighty three. Michael
has obtained the sixty eighth pole of his career, the fourth
at this circuit.
Jean Todt: “A fantastic qualifying!
Tomorrow on the grid, it will be nice to see two Ferraris
on the front row for the third time this season. A big vote
of thanks to Bridgestone, who have provided us with exceptional
tyres for qualifying. The team did a really excellent job,
repairing the cars after the problems we had in the final
free practice session. But we are well aware that the only
thing that matters for the championships is the race result.
Yes, having both cars on the front row means we are in the
best possible situation to bring home a good result tomorrow,
but we also know what key factors will make the difference:
reliability (remember that we will run 70 laps in very high
temperatures,) consistent tyre performance, strategy and the
way the team handles the pit-stops.”
Michael Schumacher: “I am very happy!
Pole position with Felipe starting alongside me – we
cannot ask for more! I have to admit I am a bit surprised
at the result, especially in light of the fact we started
qualifying without much of a reference point after the problems
we had this morning in practice. I want to thank all the mechanics,
who did a fantastic job to fix the car. The Bridgestones are
performing very well. It’s great to have repeated the
Indianapolis qualifying result, but now I also want to repeat
the race result from there, as it is important to pick up
as many points as possible. Our aim for tomorrow is obvious:
to win.”
Felipe Massa: “This morning I had
a clutch problem, which the team was able to fix, but only
just before the start of qualifying. A big thank you to the
mechanics for doing a fantastic job in getting the car ready
in time. The car seems to be working well, it is competitive,
as are the Bridgestone tyres. I am very happy to be on the
front row for the second time in a row, my third this season.
For tomorrow, having new tyres in the race will make a big
difference so it will be interesting to see who will have
that advantage. In practice we were competitive on used tyres
and I hope we can maintain a good pace in tomorrow’s
high temperatures over the long runs so that we can stay in
front.”
Ross Brawn: “That was a very exciting
qualifying session and it served as an indication of the progress
Bridgestone have made on the tyre front. We saw in Indianapolis
that we were in a very strong situation which was down to
the tyres and that trend has continued here, which is very
encouraging. The key tomorrow will be the consistency of the
tyres as it will be very hot during the race and it will be
vital for the tyres to perform well over the full length of
a stint. As for the fire on Michael’s car this morning,
we think there was a bit of excess fuel in the exhausts and
it caught fire. Then we had a problem with the fire extinguisher
which meant we did not put out the fire quite as quickly as
we should have done. But everything is fine with the car.
At the moment, it is hard to judge what strategies our rivals
are on in terms of length of stint. Now we will do our calculations
based on what we saw in qualifying so that we can try and
predict what they might do.”
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