FORMULA ONE: Monaco lives up to its reputation for Honda quartet
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
May 27, 2001
Honda quartet feel the heat in qualifying
The four Honda-powered drivers experienced the unforgiving nature of Monaco today in qualifying for the 59th Monaco Grand Prix as all were unable to capitalise on a promising build-up over the two free practice sessions. Jarno Trulli (Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda) and Jacques Villeneuve (Lucky Strike BAR Honda) will start the tomorrow's race from rows five and six after they qualified in eight and ninth positions respectively. Their team-mates Olivier Panis (BAR Honda) and Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan Honda) qualified 12th and 13th.
As Monaco basked in glorious sunshine, McLaren's David Coulthard won an intense battle for pole position with Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and his McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen. In doing so the Scot bettered Schumacher's pole position time from the previous year by more than two seconds.
Jarno Trulli Position: 8th
"It was a very tough qualifying session as I expected and I'm disappointed, particularly as we seemed competitive during morning practice. Unfortunately my last timed run was hindered as I was blocked by a slow Ferrari in the tunnel, which I found very frustrating since in the drivers' briefing it was agreed that cars going slowly should stop before the tunnel to allow drivers on their flying lap to pass. The car does not seem to be that well-balanced with the tyres that we have for this weekend. I had a problem with lack of grip in the low speed corners and the car seems to be quite nervous, so we have some work to do for tomorrow but anything is possible in the race, especially at this circuit."
Kazutoshi Nishizawa - Technical Director, Honda Racing Development "It's a disappointing result - not as good as we wanted or expected and particularly because grid position is so important at Monaco. Anyway, that's the result and we'll do our best to prepare for tomorrow's race."
Trevor Foster, Joint Managing Director, Jordan Honda
"It's an unfortunate result for the team, particularly as neither Heinz no Jarno had a clear final timed run. One of the problems with this circuit is that your grid position is punished if you don't complete all your timed runs. Jarno was blocked by a Ferrari which cost him a few vital tenths and Heinz lost the rear of the car on braking before the tunnel. Both EJ11 cars are generally well-balanced but it's difficult to get the perfect balance on this circuit. We should have been higher up on the grid but missed our best opportunities."
Craig Pollock, Team Principal and Managing Director, BAR Honda
"It was always going to be a very tight qualifying session but we are very happy with today's result. Both drivers did a very good job as did the team and Honda. Clearly we still have some work to do tonight to find a little bit extra that we need for the race tomorrow."
Text provided by BAR Honda
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