Formula One: BAR Honda powers to best qualifying perfomance of season
17 June 2000
FIA Formula 1 World Championship - Round 8 Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal Qualifying BAR HONDA POWERS TO BEST QUALIFYING PERFORMANCE OF THE SEASON Saturday 17 June 2000 Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda's best qualifying session of the season ended with both drivers in the top eight for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix. Both drivers equalled their previous best results of the year, Jacques Villeneuve claiming sixth place (as in Spain) and Ricardo Zonta eighth (as in Brazil). As the Montreal weather again provided temperatures approaching 30 degrees, the teams waited in their garages for the optimum conditions to set a fast time. Having aborted his first run as a result of a yellow flag, Villeneuve set his best time on the second lap of a four timed lap run with five minutes of the session remaining and the Canadian again recorded one of the fastest speeds across the finish line. Zonta's performance was equally impressive, as he had lost a significant amount of track time during the early part of the weekend. The Brazilian found a good set-up on his car and used the straight-line speed of the BAR Honda 002 to claim a top ten starting position for the second time this year. Jacques Villeneuve Position: 6th 1min 19.544sec "I'm very happy. The team did a great job today and the possibility of scoring points tomorrow is looking very good, although I'm sure we can fight for a podium as well because the car is very good on old tyres. My best lap wasn't perfect today, but the most we could have gained is maybe one place, so the result is pretty close to what would have been our best position." Ricardo Zonta Position: 8th 1min 19.742sec "I think eighth is a really good result after the mechanical problems I had yesterday and today. It shows that my qualifying speed is OK and also that if I am able to achieve a good chassis set-up that works with my driving style, then I can set competitive times. Eighth is a good place to start the race from, so if I can avoid other people's accidents and don't have any problems, I think we can get a good result tomorrow." Takefumi Hosaka - Managing Director, Honda R&D "It was a pretty good result today and has really raised the motivation of the team. Jacques did a very good job and Ricardo was able to get the most out of the engine and car this afternoon which is good for his confidence. The setting of the chassis was good and enabled us to use the engine to its full potential. We are now beginning to see the result of the work we are doing at the tests. We look forward to the race tomorrow from a strong position and reliability as ever will be important." Behind the Ferrari and McLaren teams who took the first four places, Honda-powered cars filled the next four as Jordan Mugen Honda's Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli qualified among the BAR Hondas in fifth and seventh places respectively.