Ferrari upbeat and confident for the race

“It was a very interesting session with different situations arising,” remarked Michael. “Given that the Williams were very quick here, I can say we should be happy with second and fourth places, especially as Ralf could have been quicker if it had not been for the red flags at the end. To be honest, I am not surprised at the result. We are not quick enough in qualifying trim but we can be tomorrow in the race, when I think the lap times will be much closer.”

Rubens Barrichello has suffered a lot of problems this weekend, from brakes on Friday to an engine blow-out in Saturday practice and he is glad to have secured a place on the second row for the race. The Brazilian driver is not too concerned by the qualifying order as he is sure the F2002 will be up for the battle in race trim and with Monza offering some overtaking chances then a front row position is not the reward it can be at other tracks.

“In the end, I can say this was a good qualifying session, especially when considering the problem I had in the first part of this morning’s free practice,” said Barrichello. “It was something of an unusual session, because the quickest time came with the second flying lap. As for tomorrow, I am calm and confident. Already, from last week’s test, we saw that the F2002 is very good in race trim. On top of that, overtaking is possible at this track, so not starting from the front row is not a penalty.”

Jean Todt was naturally slightly disappointed that Ferrari did not take pole position on their home track but he is confident as usual that race day will see a better result for all those people supporting Ferrari. The tyres will play a key part in the race outcome and with Bridgestone showing great race consistency then its looking good for Ferrari.

“It was a close fought qualifying session,” commented Todt. “We achieved our objective in getting both our cars onto the two front rows. Of course, we would have preferred to have taken pole position, to dedicate it to our fans and the Gestione Sportiva staff who are here in Monza. The fight we have witnessed today, between the two strongest teams in the Championship, points to a very closely contested race tomorrow. The tyres Bridgestone have brought here have proved to be very consistent and that can only be cause for optimism for the rest of the weekend.”

“I think we did the best we could today, but Montoya was just a little bit quicker,” concluded Ross Brawn. “We used a new Bridgestone tyre here that was developed since last week’s test and it seems to work very well. It takes a couple of laps to be at its best for qualifying, but I believe that is a good sign for its performance in the race. After the test, we knew Williams would be strong and so we expected a tough battle today. I was very pleased with the performance of our engine. Tomorrow, strategy will be critical and I think it will be a very exciting race.”