German Grand Prix - Qualifying
HEATWAVE AT HOCKENHEIM Montoya takes first pole as Honda-powered teams endure difficult session Jarno Trulli, aboard his Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda, was the highest Honda-powered driver in today's qualifying session for tomorrow's German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, setting the 10th fastest time. Jacques Villenueve took his Lucky Strike BAR Honda to 12th on the grid, while his team-mate Olivier Panis qualified 13th and Ricardo Zonta, in the second Jordan Honda, 15th. Trulli suffered an engine failure midway through his third timed lap and, with not enough time left in the session to get back to the pits and into the spare car, was not able to improve on his placing. As the air and track temperatures soared, beyond 30 and 40 degrees Celsius respectively, Juan Pablo Montoya took his maiden F1 pole position in his Williams BMW and was joined on the front row by Ralf Schumacher, the Colombian denying his team-mate the kudos of the number one qualifying spot at his home grand prix. McLaren's Mika Hakkinen was third fastest, followed by the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher and the second McLaren and Ferrari of David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello. Jarno Trulli Position: 10th "This is a very disappointing result for me and the team. The car was quite good but it was tough to keep pace with the front runners. Unfortunately, the engine failed on my third run at the furthest point away on the circuit and the marshals weren't very professional as they didn't know where to send me so that I could be taken back to the garage. I figured it out by myself but that cost me some time so I wasn't able to make it back in time to go out in the t-car for a final run. Considering I only made two timed laps however, 10th place is not bad, just frustrating, as we could have been higher up the grid." Kazutoshi Nishizawa - Technical Director, Honda Racing Development "Clearly, this has been our worst qualifying performance so far this year and of course we are extremely disappointed. However, it is over and the race comes tomorrow, which is a different challenge. Between now and then, we will be making every effort to ensure we are as best prepared for this as possible." Eddie Jordan, Chief Executive, Jordan Honda "Today's result was not good but we had a number of problems which worked against us. Jarno was very unlucky in that he only achieved two timed runs as he lost an engine on his third run. Sadly, he couldn't get back to the garage in time to get out in the spare car so he also lost his final run. It is a great shame that Ricardo, on his first flying lap, was blocked by Panis on an outlap. I don't think he really got his momentum back after that. Obviously, we need to find some more speed and we have struggled this weekend. Our aim for tomorrow's race is to bring two cars home and hopefully win some points." Craig Pollock, Team Principal and Managing Director, BAR Honda "Our qualifying position was realistically the best we could expect from the car at the moment. If we hadn't had the yellow flag on the last run then maybe Jacques could have jumped up a couple of places but that is the limit of the car as things stand at the moment. We have to be satisfied with our position on the grid but we can continue to work hard and find a little bit extra for the race tomorrow." Today's results 1 MONTOYA Williams BMW 1m38.117s 2 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 1m38.136s 3 HAKKINEN McLaren Mercedes 1m38.811s 4 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m38.941s 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes 1m39.574s 6 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m39.682s 7 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1m39.921s 8 RAIKKONEN Sauber Petronas 1m40.072s 9 DE LA ROSA Jaguar 1m40.265s 10 TRULLI Jordan Honda 1m40.322s 12 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda 1m40.437s 13 PANIS BAR Honda 1m40.610s 15 ZONTA Jordan Honda 1m41.174s