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For Michelin the best
driver in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix was McLaren Mercedes
driver David Coulthard followed by team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. They will
start tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix from the second row after qualifying
third and fourth respectively in a session that was delayed by one hour
and fifteen minutes following Toyota's Allan McNish's accident.
McNish lost control at the 285km/h (175mph) 130R corner and his car
slammed into the barriers with such force that he broke the guardrail
before landing on the other side. Although badly shaken he was able to
release himself from the wreck before being taken to the medical centre.
"First of all, I fell fine" he said when he came back into the box. "I
have had a check-up and my knee is sore, but I am confident of getting
back into the car tomorrow morning. The best thing is to get back in the
cockpit as soon as possible." He set the 18th-fastest time prior to the
accident.
Five Michelin drivers will line up in the top ten. Behind the McLaren pair
came the BMW WilliamsF1 cars of Ralf Schumacher in fifth and Juan Pablo
Montoya in sixth. Renault's Jenson Button was tenth. Juan Pablo was
unhappy with his qualifying result. Montoya said: "A disappointing
qualifying, no doubt about it. It's a shame to start so far away on the
grid. Unfortunately today I have equalled my worse qualifying position
this year which I set in Australia."
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director, responded to several
questions.
You have five cars in the top 10 today and a couple of your partner teams
are very well placed, but the result is perhaps not quite what you were
expecting?
"We know very well that it is unrealistic to set too much store by what we
see on Friday and Saturday morning, when we were fastest, but the only
disappointment was that we were unable to find a little bit more time at
the end of today's session. Our quickest cars all improved, but not by
much, and we also lost one of our strongest runners because Eddie Irvine
had a problem and did not complete the session. But for these factors we
might have done better still."
Will we see both your harder, primary (A) tyre and the softer option (B)
in the race?
"Both our compounds work very well here and teams have had to think long
and hard about which to use, because there is not a lot to choose between
them in terms of speed or durability. One has proved to be more popular
than the other but both will feature in the race."
This is one of the more abrasive circuits F1 cars race on. Have you any
concerns about tyre wear tomorrow?
"This is traditionally a two-stop race and despite high temperatures
during the last two days we have had absolutely no problems with excessive
wear or blistering."
How do you feel about your race prospects this weekend?
"Generally I am delighted with the way Michelin has finished the season,
which is only our second back in F1, remember, because we have produced
really fast, consistent and hard-wearing tyres for the last few events and
I am confident we are making good progress." |
