Monaco: Villeneuve Qualifies in the Top Ten
By Jamie Makin
May 21 2005
Team SAUBER PETRONAS drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Felipe Massa achieved ninth and 12th positions respectively after this afternoon’s first qualifying session, so tomorrow they will start final qualifying tenth and seventh in the running order.
Jacques Villeneuve put in an impressive performance today beating out both Ferrari drivers and his teammate Felipe Massa. "That was better than I expected," said the upbeat Canadian driver. "To begin with we changed the car quite a lot since Thursday, but otherwise we left the set-up alone as the day progressed. The balance was neutral, and it was just a matter of doing the laps and getting used to the car and the tyres, and then taking some risks. It was a hard lap but I didn’t make any mistakes, so I’m happy so far."
Felipe Massa missed out on this morning's first practice session as the team switched him to a new chassis for the race. Massa's C24 had sustained heavy damage in a shunt at Ste Devote during Thursday's practice.
"I couldn’t run a fast lap with new tyres until I went out this afternoon, and to be honest I wasn’t 100 percent confident," admitted the young Brazilian. "I couldn’t get a feel for the level of grip at times and that was just enough to make the difference. It would have been very easy to make a significant mistake and damage the car. But from where I am it is still possible to fight, both in qualifying and the race tomorrow."
Team boss Peter Sauber is proud of his team but knows there is still some hard work ahead for tomorrow's race. "Our goal is always to qualify in the top 10, but we knew that would be very difficult here. I am very happy that Jacques is ninth so far, but unfortunately Felipe was not able to deliver an optimal lap this time," said Sauber. "Now we have a new challenge tomorrow, to retain our strong grid positions while choosing the right strategy for what is always a tough race."
Saturday, Qualifying 1:
| Driver | Chassis | Best Time | Position |
| J. Villeneuve | C24-04 | 1:15.921 (+2.277) | 9 |
| F. Massa | C24-02 | 1:16.218 (+2.574) | 12 |
| Spare Car | sC24-03 | - | - |
Saturday, Free Practice 3:
| Driver | Chassis | Position | Best Time | Laps |
| J. Villeneuve | C24-04 | 13 | 1:18.640 (+2.443) | 9 |
| F. Massa | C24-02 | 18 | No Time | 1 |
| Spare Car | C24-03 | - | - | - |
Saturday, Free Practice 4:
| Driver | Chassis | Position | Best Time | Laps |
| J. Villeneuve | C24-04 | 14 | 1:16.148 (+2.160) | 10 |
| F. Massa | C24-02 | 13 | 1:16.123 (+2.135) | 17 |
| Spare Car | C24-03 | - | - | - |