US Grand Prix - Qualifying
BRICKYARD GETS SET FOR ACTION Tight qualifying session sets the scene for a competitive US Grand Prix Jarno Trulli and Jean Alesi qualified their Benson and Hedges Jordan Hondas in eighth and ninth positions respectively for the start of the 2001 US Grand Prix at Indianapolis, the pair separated by just two-thousandths of a second as the leading Honda-powered drivers and cars on tomorrow’s grid. In one of the closest qualifying sessions this season, particularly in the midfield, Olivier Panis qualified his Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda in 13th position while his team-mate Jacques Villeneuve qualified 18th. Clear blue skies and warm sunshine provided a beautiful backdrop to the world-famous ‘Brickyard’ as Michael Schumacher secured pole position in his Ferrari from McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen. Ralf Schumacher took third position with his Williams BMW and his team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya, who took his first win last race at Monza, was fourth. The second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello, having held provisional pole for a large part of the hour session, was fifth and Nick Heidfeld completed the front three rows’ line-up, putting his Sauber sixth on the grid. Jarno Trulli Position: 8th “Our qualifying positions are better than we had expected so I feel this is a good achievement today. It was a very tough session and I wasn’t able to improve on my best lap time as I had to abort my last run due to traffic. From the data it is clear that I need to find more speed to be competitive tomorrow, but I am looking forward to the race as I think I have a good chance of scoring points from my grid position.” Kazutoshi Nishizawa – Technical Director, Honda Racing Development “The qualifying session was extremely competitive and exciting. However, we are not happy with the results. We believe it is going to be a very close race tomorrow so we want to set-up the engines to give our drivers and partner teams the best performance.” Eddie Jordan, Chief Executive, Jordan Honda “It was a difficult qualifying session so Jarno and Jean did very well to finish in the top 10. It was impressive to see Jean so close to Jarno, who we know is superb in qualifying. They both took full advantage of the cars’ current potential and we have a good chance to perform well in the race tomorrow.” Craig Pollock, Team Principal and Managing Director, BAR Honda “After the difficulties we encountered in the two practice sessions, we knew it was going to be hard for us to qualify well today. Olivier has done a good job and his qualifying position is a better reflection of where the cars should be today. Jacques and his engineers have struggled with his car throughout the weekend and in qualifying tried everything they could with both the race car and the T-car. We haven’t been able to achieve the performance we are capable of with Jacques and I’m very disappointed for the whole team.” Today’s results Pos Driver Chassis-engine Time 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1'11"708 2 HAKKINEN McLaren Mercedes 1'11"945 3 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 1'11"986 4 MONTOYA Williams BMW 1'12"252 5 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1'12"327 6 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1'12"434 7 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes 1'12"500 8 TRULLI Jordan Honda 1'12"605 9 ALESI Jordan Honda 1'12"607 10 BUTTON Benetton Renault 1'12"805 11 RAIKKONEN Sauber Petronas 1'12"881 12 FISICHELLA Benetton Renault 1'12"942 13 PANIS B.A.R Honda 1'13"122 14 IRVINE Jaguar 1'13"189 15 FRENTZEN Prost Acer 1'13"281 16 DE LA ROSA Jaguar 1'13"679 17 ALONSO Minardi European 1'13"991 18 VILLENEUVE B.A.R Honda 1'14"012 19 BERNOLDI Arrows Asiatech 1'14"129 20 VERSTAPPEN Arrows Asiatech 1'14"138 21 ENGE Prost Acer 1'14"185 22 YOONG Minardi European 1'15"247 -------------------------------------------------------------- Honda Formula 1 Press Office, 19 Heathmans Road, London, SW6 4TJ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7384 2133 Fax: +44 (0)20 7384 1238