Europe 1999: Previews

[ Arrows | Benetton | BAR | Ferrari | Jordan | McLaren | Minardi | Sauber | Stewart | Prost | Williams | Bridgestone ]


Arrows [start]

Not present at this time


Benetton [start]

Giancarlo Fisichella
"Unfortunately I missed the chance to improve on my last flying lap. I came out of a corner ont the white line wich was still wet, the car skidded and I lost a couple of tehths. Sixth position is a satisfactory place to start the race sunday, but the car felt good today so it is frustrating not to have qualified at bit higher up."

Alexander Wurz
"I was held up by a McLaren on my first of two flying laps and then on my second one my tires lots performance. The car is good in both wet and dry conditions so we should be competitive in the race tomorrow."

Pat Symonds
"We had a good session this morning and achieved a reasonable balance on the car, but the rain just before qualifying made the session something of a lottery. However, overall seem to be quite competitive in both the wet and dry conditions and the final qualifying positions are a reasonable reflection fo our work this weekend."


British American Racing [start]

The only thing that has been more consistent than Jacques Villeneuve in recent FIA Formula One races is the weather at Nurburgring. Notorious for sudden showers and rainstorms that sweep out of the Eifel Mountains and onto the German circuit, the vagaries of Nurburgring dictated a topsy-turvy qualifying session today, with lap times dropping a whopping dozen seconds in the last third of the qualifying hour.

Consistency has become Jacques Villeneuve's stock-in-trade in the recent races on the FIA Formula One circuit, and that was the case today in free practice and the official qualifying session for the European Grand Prix. Jacques was seventh fastest in the morning warm-up, and eighth in qualifying, and will start Sunday's race from the fourth row.

Like all teams, British American Racing were faced with a wet-dry quandary as the Q session got under way. The Nurburgring circuit was drenched by a previous rain and some isolated showers, and all teams were using slower, but more stable rain tyres, during the first half-hour. With a little more than 20 minutes remaining in the 60-minute qualifying session, Rubens Barrichello of Stewart had the fastest lap of one minute, 31.703 seconds on the 4.556 km/2.831 miles circuit which drains poorly.

At that point, Ricardo Zonta went out and turned in a lap of 1:32.895 and was ninth provisionally. It would be the last turn of the track in the "30s" as the water evaporated and teams frenetically switched over to dry set-ups. Within five minutes, the fastest lap had dropped eight seconds, and by the end of qualifying, Heinz-Harald Frentzen of Jordan was on the pole with a blistering 1:19.910, a full 12 seconds faster than the leading time just 20 minutes before.

Zonta was able to cut 10 seconds off his time to 1:22.267, but dropped back to 17th place. Jacques Villeneuve, on the other hand, was on the "edge" of the points once again, in eighth with 1:20.825, sandwiched between Damon Hill (Jordan, 1:20.818) and Ferrari's Eddie Irvine (1:20.842).

Joining Frentzen on the first row for Sunday's race is David Coulthard of McLaren, while defending champion Mika Hakkinen (McLaren) and Ralf Schumacher of Williams are third and fourth respectively and on row two. The European Grand Prix closes out the European leg of the 1999 calendar. After Sunday's race, the teams complete the 16-race season with events in Malaysia and Japan.

Jacques Villeneuve : 1:20.825 - 8th
"There was a lot of traffic right at the end, but my best lap was clear and the car again felt very strong. My first and third sectors were almost as fast as Frentzen's, but I made a mistake in the second sector and backed off a little. Without that, I think we could have set a fourth quickest time, not eighth. The car feels well balanced between front and rear, and I'm very happy with the handling. The new clutch should allow me to get a good start in the race and be aggressive. We may have a problem if it rains because we haven't got much experience in the wet with this car, but it feels good and I'm pretty confident for the race."

Ricardo Zonta : 1:22.627 - 17th
"Qualifying in these conditions is like a game because the person who waits longest will have the most advantage. I am very disappointed with this grid position because, although we improved the set-up since this morning, it was not good enough for us and I always had too much understeer. 'Rocky' Rocquelin, my stand-in engineer for this weekend, is doing a great job, considering that it is his first time as a race engineer, and the qualifying conditions today were difficult. I will try my best in the race on Sunday to make up for my low qualifying position."

Craig Pollock : Chairman & CEO, British American Racing
"We took a risk holding Ricardo back until late in the session to give him the best chance. It is a pity that our drivers are not closer together, but reliability is one hundred per cent and that is encouraging for the race."

RObert Synge : Team Manager , British American Racing
"The session was a lottery, of course. We had to wait for the track to dry, but that meant that traffic became a problem during the last few minutes. However I think we are about where we would have been if it was completely dry, and the weather conditions probably did not make a great deal of difference for us."


Ferrari [start]

Jean Todt
"Qualifying was run in difficult conditions. Unfortunately, Eddie spun on his fastest lap. The difference between the cars is very close, but our cars are in the middle of the grid, while our closest rivals are in the top three places. Therefore this is not an ideal situation for the race. Tomorrow, just as today, the weather conditions will play a determining role. Choosing the right strategy will be equally important."

Eddie Irvine
"I am very disappointed because we were capable of getting on the front row today. On my penultimate lap I was held up by traffic. Then on my last lap I locked my rear brakes on a damp patch, went onto the grass and that was the end of it. This is a poor result, but we have not given up. The race will be a different story. Assuming it is dry tomorrow afternoon, I am confident I have made the right tyre choice. Combined with our good reliable car, this will allow me to be as aggressive as I need to be."

Mika Salo
"Our strategy did not work out and the track dried too much at the end of the session. However, I am confident we will be much stronger in the race. When it did dry, I had another car in front of me on my quickest lap. Its amazing how some people do not look in their mirrors. This position is not the best start for tomorrow, but with a strong car and a well planned strategy, we can do something good in the race."


Jordan [start]

Heinz-Harald Frentzen took pole position today in Nurburgring, the second pole of his career (first pole 1997, Monza) and the second pole for the Benson and Hedges Jordan team (first pole 1994, Spa, Barrichello). Frentzen made the perfect strategy decision and, after a race-style tyre change in the pit lane, was able to run in the final seconds of the session to clinch pole. Damon Hill also enjoyed a good qualifying, but was squeezed down to seventh in the closing seconds.

The session was very tense, with drivers and teams trying to second guess the weather and track conditions. Rain fell at the start of the session, but, despite threatening to do so again, conditions became increasingly drier as the hour progressed. It came down to a test of nerves as to who could chance their luck to be the last driver on the track. Some drivers lost in the lottery, most notably Championship contender Eddie Irvine, who will start the race from a lowly 9th place. His team mate Mika Salo faired even worse, finishing 12th.. Ralf Schumacher looks strong and will race from 4th place. Coulthard out qualified Hakkinen, the Scot finishing second and ahead of the Finn in third place, leading to the inevitable questions about team orders. Not surprisingly, neither Coulthard nor Hakkinen was keen to make any comment.

Eddie Jordan
Coming on the back of his victory in Monza, Frentzen's pole today makes his Championship challenge look that much stronger. "That was a fantastic qualifying session for Benson and Hedges Jordan," said Frentzen's boss, Eddie Jordan. "It was all very nerve wracking but in the end it worked out perfectly with the decision to come into change tyres in the pit lane allowing Heinz to take pole. Damon did an excellent job too, but went out that little bit too early. It is a great day for Jordan - our second ever pole, and a great day for Mr Honda who arrived just in time to see the end of the session."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Commmenting after taking pole, Frentzen said, "It feels fantastic to be on pole, especially here in Germany. We'd had a difficult time in the practice sessions with various problems, and we were not sure how quick we would be compared with our competitors. The only chance I had was to go for it in qualifying and we really got our act together and made the best out of the situation. We had a lot of discussions about when to go out and it was difficult to know what to do as no-one can predict what is going to happen, but in the end we got it right. When I went out at the end I saw that the track was drying out very quickly and I talked to my engineer about what we could do. We only had four and a half minutes and we took the decision to come in so the mechanics could change the tyres in the pit lane - that was a really key decision. Today we did an absolutely perfect job. The race will be tough but we will just have to do our best."

Damon Hill
"I am pretty happy with today's session. It was very exciting and it could have been so easy to slip up and time things wrong and end up way down. So being just outside the top six is not bad. At one point I was at the sharp end which felt great. I feel very good and positive about the car and I am very pleased for Heinz-Harald and for the team for getting pole position because it shows we can be competitive on twisty tracks as well as high speed circuits. Eddie is sitting on a very strong team at the moment."


McLaren [start]

West McLaren Mercedes drivers David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen will start from second and third positions on the grid for tomorrow's race. David took second place with a 1:20.176 with Mika just two tenths behind on 1:20.376.

David Coulthard
"I think today's qualifying was a good session to watch on the television but I think for all the teams and all the drivers it was a bit frustrating. You didn't know when to go out, how much fuel to run or when to change tyres - it all became a lottery - but as always we tried to make the best of the situation. The engineers took the right decisions in the circumstances and kept a good set up for the car and it worked in my favour."

Mika Hakkinen
"I wasn't too worried about the rain as the car is so good that I knew that we would be competitive. Of course the changeable conditions made life quite difficult and to be third on the grid is always disappointing, but I think we did the best we could today and we should be happy about the result. Naturally we hope that the weather will hold good for the race, but I feel confident that we have a car with good set ups for any weather condition."

Ron Dennis
"Whilst this type of qualifying is somewhat of a lottery, you are still able to minimise the odds. We had to cover our main opposition but at the same time make every effort to be on pole. We compromised the set up for the conditions which along with the usual end of qualifying traffic only saw us achieve second and third places on the grid. Which is not so bad in the circumstances."

Norbert Haug
"A thrilling qualifying session today which was only decided in the dying minutes. David and Mika have a good basis from which to start the race. Congratulations to Heinz-Harald Frentzen for his first pole of the season."


Minardi [start]

Luca Badoer
"This morning, during the free practice, I had a very good feeling with my car so I would prefer a dry qualifying session in order to continue the today's work which was getting on well, already. I believe that under normal track conditions it would have been certainly better for us. Actually the conditions were so changeable and confusing that we hardly took advantage of this session."

Marc Gene
"I feel fairly satisfied. The Team did a good job today and the strategy was the right one. The car was okay even on the first run when the track was very wet. In the end as the track was getting drier, I managed to score a good lap time, although not perfect."

Cesario Fiorio
"Over these two days we have been in the position to confirm the competitiveness of both cars which showed the recent improvements. At the beginning, as the weather conditions were changeable and uncertain, we did an excellent performance during the qualifying session; once the weather was back to the normality we dropped back to our usual positions, though always in front of our direct rivals. We shall see tomorrow during the race."


Sauber [start]

Jean Alesi
"I don't like the figures I saw from the wet set-up of the rear wing I was going to use at the end, but rather than alter them it was quicker to use another wing with dry settings in the limited time available. The track was quite consistent in the final stages, but because of the wing situation I lacked downforce so the car was not at its optimum." Pedro Diniz
"My last lap was easily good enough for a place in the top ten, until Irvine went off the road and came straight back on in front of me without looking. I'm really disappointed he did that, because the car felt so good. Nevertheless I still think I'm well placed to score points tomorrow."

Peter Sauber
"This was a qualifying session that read like a thriller, with tension right up until the last second. Il retrospect I thik we should have waited a bit longer and divided our last eight-lap runs into two stints. But it's always easy to be clever in hindsight."


Stewart [start]

Weather : Rain initially, clear and dry towards the end of the session. (Ambient temperature 15 deg C, track temperature 18 deg C)

Johnny Herbert will start tomorrow's European Grand Prix from 14th position. He had to use the spare car after his race car developed an electrical problem on his first lap out of the pits. Rubens Barrichello qualified 15th.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Jordan) tooki pole position ahead of the McLarens of David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen.

Johnny Herbert : Time: 1:21.379 - Position: 14th
How difficult was it to qualify in the spare car?
"It was annoying to have the problem on my first out lap. The car simply died on me so I had to run back to the pits and get into the spare car. I found the throttle pedal on the spare car quite limp which took some getting used to."
Could you have gone quicker at the end of the session as the circuit was drying?
"I missed out on getting in another lap before the end of the session by a couple of seconds. I came up behind one of the Arrows heading in to the straight and got round him with the light still green. However as I crossed the line I looked up to see the red light. It was a shame because we made a set-up change before my final run and the car felt much better over the kerbs and I'm sure I could have improved my time."

Rubens Barrichello : Time: 1:21.490 - Position: 15th
You must be frustrated by starting tomorrow's race from so far back?
"It was an eventful session. I was a hero for the first half an hour when I was quickest in the wet but by the end I finished 15th, so I haven't made things easy for the race. I caught traffic on my last flying lap which didn't help because my target was the top eight. We decided to go for just one long run at the end. In hindsight the strategy didn't work because just when I had the tyres working I found myself without a clear track."

Paul Stewart : Stewart-Ford Chief Operating Officer
"There are good and bad days in Formula One and today was a bad one for us, culminating in our low grid positions. The weather made it a bit of a lottery for everybody, and we were one of the teams that came out worse. Both Rubens and Johnny were held up on their last flying laps which prevented us from improving our qualifying performance."

Martin Whitaker : Director, Ford Racing, Europe
"We had obviously hoped for better today. The result is even harder to bear knowing they are our worst qualifying positions this year. Both drivers had a difficult afternoon and Johnny's wasn't helped by having to qualify in the spare car."


Prost [start]

Olivier Panis : 5th - 1.20.638
"It truly gives me great pleasure to start from fifth place on the grid. All weekend, I have worked closely with the engineers and all the rest of the team. I was quick yesterday and very happy with the balance of the car. Alain Prost, Alan Jenkins and Vincent Gaillardot judged the track conditions perfectly this afternoon and we did well to wait to the final minutes to go out. I was really on the limit in my last lap and it was just as I hoped and imagined. Rain is predicted for tomorrow, but that will create the conditions which I like very much and the car is well balanced for the wet. So; I qm very confident."

Jarno Trulli : 10th - 1.20.965
"After the first run on wet tyres, I had a good feeling on the drying track. I was second after my second to last run. I went out for the last run with five minutes remaining, on a track which was almost dry. Unfortunately; I was slowed by traffic on my fastest lap : a Sauber and a Ferrari were on their way back into the pits. I must check the data with my engineer, as I struggled to find the same performance in a straight line as I had today. It will be an open and interesting race."

Alain Prost
"Everyone did their times in the same conditions this afternoon. We did well to judge the possibility of doing three runs on slicks. The drivers did their job without any mistakes. Olivier did a superb lap and Jarno was a little blocked. I am truly happy to have a car on the third row and both drivers in the top ten. In these changing and humid conditions, the team always worked fast and well. There was very good coordination between the mechanics and the engineers. Tomorrow; if the conditions are difficult, we will be in a good position and we can hope for a good result."


Williams [start]

A mixed result for the Winfield Williams F1 drivers Ralf Schumacher and Alex Zanardi who whre respectively fouth and 18th fastest in the qualifying session of the Grand Prix of Europe. The rain - which started to fall right after the free parctice session - didn't spoil the positive performance of Ralf, who was second in the morning and a brillant fourth in the afternoon qualifying, achieving his best position on the grid so far this season.

Ralf started the session in his T-car, which was set for wet track conditions and turned then to his race car, set for dry conditions, as the track became dyer. Alex Zanardi, who was trapped in the traffic on his fast lap at the end of the session, will start tomorrow from a poor position on the grid.

Ralf Schumacher
"Today's qualifying session was a true gamble. When you have qualifying like this, you can win everything or loose everything. I am very happy because I ended up in a strong position, but if you look at Alex and Frentzen, for example, the first lost it all the second won all. With such weather conditions everything is about being out on the track at the right time. You could go out at the last minute and waste your fast lap with a yellow flag or with a slow car in front of you, as happened to Alex, so you always need a bit of luck."

Alex Zanardi
"Everybody knows that in the last minutes a qualifying session like this becomes a jungle. Unfortunately in my first new-tyre lap I found Salo and Villeneuve in front of me, who slowed me cown - particularry Jacques - as they dis not want to be delayed themselves on their following laps. There is nothing you can do in this case. I lost more than a second there. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow to get a good result in the race.


Bridgestone [start]

Not present at this time

European Grand Prix Weekend