Spanish GP - Qualifying
HONDAS KEEP IT CLOSE Trulli, Villeneuve and Frentzen stick together in qualifying for Spanish Grand Prix Jarno Trulli put his Benson & Hedges Jordan Honda on the third row of the grid for the third time this season as he qualified sixth for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. The Italian was closely shadowed by his Honda-powered adversary Jacques Villeneuve, who qualified seventh in his Lucky Strike BAR Honda, just under three-hundredths of a second behind. Trulli's Jordan Honda team-mate, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, will share the fourth row with Jacques to start from eighth, with almost the same time margin. Olivier Panis was unfortunate not to convert his promising form in the morning's free practice session into a higher grid position as he qualified 11th fastest in his BAR Honda. Michael Schumacher arrived back on pole position after his setback in Imola two weeks ago, with the two McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, who shares the championship lead with the Ferrari driver, in second and third respectively. So confident was Schumacher's performance today that he only required eight of the maximum 12 laps to secure his 36th pole position of his Formula One career. Jarno Trulli Position: 6th "The whole team did a really good job in what was, as we expected, a very tough qualifying. I'm happy with sixth position on this track because in the past, the team's performance has not been very strong in Barcelona. On my quickest run there was some traffic and I didn't really get a completely free lap, which is a shame because fifth may have been possible as the gap from one car to another is so close. I'm confident for tomorrow, as this year the car is proving to be reliable and very competitive in the races. I hope I'll have a good start but it's going to be a very tough Grand Prix." Kazutoshi Nishizawa - Technical Director, Honda Racing Development "Both teams ran relatively trouble-free today from our point of view, which is good. The new systems operated without any problems and once again both teams are close. Now we must look ahead to the race tomorrow and make sure we make the most of our grid positions, so clearly we will be working hard tonight." Eddie Jordan, Jordan Honda "Qualifying was incredibly tight. There could have been any one of twelve drivers at the front today as there seems to be two clear groups - first McLaren and Ferrari, with Jordan, Williams, Sauber and BAR following closely. It was exciting and although it wasn't our best qualifying, to be on the third and fourth row of the grid is still good. At this moment our aim is to keep scoring points and continue improving on the performance we have shown so far this year." Craig Pollock, BAR Honda "It was a good solid qualifying session and it is proof that the team has taken the positive step forward that we have been working very hard to achieve. I am a little bit disappointed that we didn't get a clear run, which would have enabled us to qualify higher up the grid, but it puts us in a good position for tomorrow." Today's results Pole Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:18.201 2 Mika Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes 1:18.286 3 David Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 1:18.635 4 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:18.674 5 Ralf Schumacher Williams BMW 1:19.016 6 Jarno Trulli Jordan Honda 1:19.093 7 Jacques Villeneuve BAR Honda 1:19.122 8 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Jordan Honda 1:19.150 11 Olivier Panis BAR Honda 1:19.479 -------------------------------------------------------------- Honda Formula 1 Press Office, 19 Heathmans Road, London, SW6 4TJ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7384 2133 Fax: +44 (0)20 7384 1238