Spanish Grand Prix – Barcelona, Qualifying session
Q1: MS 3rd 1.16.049 5 laps FM 11th 1.16.359 4 laps
Q2: MS 1st 1.14.637 3 laps FM 7th 1.15.245 3 laps
Q3: MS 3rd 1.14.970 16 giri FM 4th 1.15.442 15 laps
Chassis: MS 254 FM 250
Temperatures: air 24/26 °C track 34/37 °C
Jean Todt: “Once again, we witnessed
a very close qualifying session today. Tomorrow, we will have
an all-red second row, with the two cars of our main rival
ahead of us. Both our drivers did well. Tomorrow, reliability
and tyre performance and Bridgestone has made a great job
of that for this race. Given that overtaking is very difficult,
it’s clear that strategy will play a key role in deciding
the outcome and tomorrow we will find out who got it right.”
Michael Schumacher: “I am quite happy
with third place on the grid, as we knew we might have to
lose a bit in qualifying, because we based our decision about
tyres more on how they would perform in the race. So, the
second row is not a big problem as we know we can expect a
strong race pace. Unlike at the Nurburgring, this time, I
start from the clean side of the grid. As for race strategy,
there are two possibilities and now we will have to make sure
we pick the best one.”
Felipe Massa: “It was a good qualifying.
A start from the front two rows is vital and we managed to
reach this target. On my final run in Q3, I came up against
a bit of traffic in the final sector, but I’m happy
with the way things went. I am very confident about the race
in that we know we can count on getting very consistent performance
from the Bridgestone tyres.”
Ross Brawn: “It was a very exciting
session which kept our drivers and engineers busy right to
the end. I think both Michael and Felipe did an excellent
job. Obviously, you always hope to be as far forward as possible
on the grid, but the cars are very good and it looks as though
the Bridgestone tyres should give a strong performance over
a long distance. There is good reason to be optimistic about
tomorrow’s race.”
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