Team Rundown Saturday Qualifying US GP

By FIA
September 28 2003

	Team Rundown
	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: Rubens Barrichello 2nd, Michael Schumacher 7th. It was a mixed qualifying session for Ferrari with Rubens Barrichello in second position on the grid but World Championship challenger Michael Schumacher down in seventh. "I did not have any grip," said Michael, "and I really don't know why. I was sliding a lot and although I made a mistake in the first corner it did not cost too much time. I lost the time in the second sector." Barrichello was delighted with his result. "The car had a very good set-up and was well balanced," he said. BMW WilliamsF1 Team: Juan Pablo Montoya 4th, Ralf Schumacher 5th. It was a rather disappointing session for the Williams team with Montoya and Ralf Schumacher only fourth and fifth. "The first sector was good," said Montoya, "but I lost time in the second and third sectors. It was a problem of oversteer. But I still think that I have a good chance to win this race because we have a lot of horsepower and we will be very quick on the straights. Kimi's result is not a surprise for me. He is always good for a surprise." Ralf Schumacher was not happy with the set-up of his car. "The car is a bit better than it was this morning," he said, "but I did not have a good first sector. After my accident this morning I lost a lot of track time and I did not feel 100% confident in the car. The grid position is OK as I am on the better side of the track at the start." West McLaren Mercedes: Kimi Raikkonen 1st, David Coulthard 8th. Kimi Raikkonen was the surprise poleman at Indianapolis after a very limited amount of running in the practice sessions. "We didn't get a lot of running," said Kimi, "and I wasn't very happy with the car. We managed to get it right. That was down to a lot of hard work by the team. Now we are in a good position but we will have to see what happens in the race." David Coulthard was a disappointing eighth but team boss Ron Dennis was satisfied with the results. "It is a step in the right direction, isn't it?" he said. "The weather has been pretty counter-productive for almost everyone and I am sure it is going to be a tough race. The track is very green at the moment and that will have a big effect in the early part of the race. This will be a tyre race and we must not underestimate Ferrari." Mild Seven Renault F1 Team: Fernando Alonso 6th, Jarno Trulli 10th. Trulli crashed in the final moments of the warm-up session but the mechanics at Renault fixed the car in time for qualifying. "I am not really satisfied with the qualifying," he said. "The car was not perfect and I could not give 100%. The race will be a different story and we have shown this weekend that we are competitive." Fernando Alonso was sixth. "We managed to improve the handling of the car," he said. "But it is still not perfect. I had understeer in some corners and oversteer in others. I will try to score points tomorrow." Sauber Petronas: Nick Heidfeld 13th, Heinz-Harald Frentzen 15th. It was a fairly normal result for Sauber. "The car was better than yesterday," said Nick Heidfeld. "The balance is good in the dry but my tyres grained before the end of the lap otherwise I would have beaten Jacques Villeneuve." Frentzen said that he had a reasonable set-up but had made a mistake in Turn 6. "That was not my greatest lap ever," he said. Jordan Ford: Giancarlo Fisichella 17th, Ralph Firman 18th. The Jordan team ended up more or less where it had expected to be. "The gearbox problem I had this morning set me back a lot," said Fisichella. "I did not get enough time to find a set-up and I could have done a lot better. But overall it was the same old story. We do not have enough grip. I hope it rains tomorrow." Ralph Firman was also struggling. "I pushed hard and in the circumstances I am pretty pleased," he said. "There were no mistakes, we are just struggling to get a decent lap time." Jaguar Racing: Mark Webber 14th, Justin Wilson 16th. It was a very disappointing session for Jaguar with Mark Webber unable to match his speed on Friday. "There was just no grip at all," he said. "We were very conservative but it was a tough session because the car was understeering everywhere. We have just lost the balance we had. I lost a lot time in Turn Four. Normally we are pretty awesome in qualifying but today we are missing something." Team boss David Pitchforth summed up the session in just one word. "Frustrating". Lucky Strike BAR Honda: Jenson Button 11th, Jacques Villeneuve 12th. BAR was satisfied with the performance of both of its cars. "We did a very good job overnight and made big changes to the set-up," said Geoff Willis, the technical director. "We are quite happy. There were no reliability problems but the drivers had to work hard, particularly in the infield section of the track where they were lacking grip. We will have to see how the set up works for the race." European Minardi Cosworth: Jos Verstappen 19th, Nicolas Kiesa 20th. It was not a good day for Minardi "Basically it's crap," said Paul Stoddart. "We had to qualify with big fuel loads and when we have a lot of fuel in this car it does not handle very well. It has massive oversteer. We can only hope for a wet race. If that happens we will run a one-stop strategy." Panasonic Toyota Racing: Olivier Panis 3rd, Cristiano da Matta 9th. It was a good day for Toyota with Olivier Panis setting the best qualifying performance from a Toyota so far. "I am absolutely delighted," said Olivier Panis. "I was unlucky in qualifying yesterday but today started very and that momentum has carried on all day. The car is really good here and I knew straight away that it had been a very good lap." Cristiano da Matta had to go to the spare car because of an engine problem in the warm-up session. "You really cannot get used to a car in just one lap," he said, "so in the circumstances I cannot be unhappy with ninth place on the grid." Bridgestone: Hisao Suganuma: "Rubens being in second shows one aspect of our performance. We are competitive over a single lap. Michael is down in seventh place but we fully expect him to be strong in the race. Our data from practice shows no problem with the tyres in race trim." Michelin: Pascal Vasselon: "It was an excellent session for Michelin. We have eight cars in the top 10 and we are delighted to see that our two drivers in the World Championship are both ahead of Michael Schumacher."