Trulli shows promise as Alonso looses grip!

By role
May 17 2003

Jarno Trulli showed promise after finishing with the 6th best time in today's qualifying. His teammate was not as lucky as he lost grip on the Niki Lauda turn and lost all his chances for a good qualifying.

Alonso was running a strong qualifying until that time however, a mistake on the Lauda turn saw him take into the gravel and finish last more than 10 seconds away from the leader.

The qualifying was full of incidents with many drivers getting off and pushing too much.

Michael Schumacher was able to come in top of the sheets followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Jarno Trulli ran a very clean lap and was able to finish 6th just behind Schumacher, Raikkonen, Montoya, Heidfield and Barrichello.

Trulli is confident of bringing some points tomorrow:

"I am very happy with my sixth place, considering that it was a tough qualifying for everybody, on a very dirty track, this morning's hard work on the set up paid off as I felt that the car balance was perfect in qualifying." He said. "I feel good and ready to attack in tomorrow's race and my objective is definitely to bring home some points for the team."

Alonso who was running a very quick lap with the 6th best time on the first sector was not able to show it by running off on the Niki Lauda turn.

However, Alonso is quite confident for tomorrow and thinks he can even score some points in the race:

"In qualifying my lap started very well but I made a mistake that took me off the track and put me at the back of the grid," The Spaniard said. "In spite of this, I feel confident I can make my way up in tomorrow's race and, who knows, even score some points."

It was also a tough session for Ralf Schumacher (10th), David Coulthard (14th) and Mark Webber (17th) who finished well off their teammates.