Qualifying Quotes - Monaco Grand Prix.

Michael Schumacher:

''For me, everything went really well. I hit the barrier at Portier on my first run, although I didn't realise it at the time, but once we cured a little too much understeer, my car was perfect. My car was not perfectly balanced for the first two runs, which is why I brushed the barriers a couple of times. I thought they needed repainting!''

Michael Schumacher:

''For me, everything went really well. I hit the barrier at Portier on my first run, although I didn't realise it at the time, but once we cured a little too much understeer, my car was perfect. My car was not perfectly balanced for the first two runs, which is why I brushed the barriers a couple of times. I thought they needed repainting!''

''A good start will be vital, but being on pole is not so important. Being on the front row is all that matters. With Jarno Trulli alongside me, and Mika Hakkinen only fifth, we have a really good base to start from. It gives us a cushion for the race although, in the past, people have won from further back. It is a long race here, and anything can happen. ''

Jarno Trulli:

''I am really surprised to be this far up the grid, but tomorrow will be tough against the Ferraris and the McLarens. I'm really happy to be here, though! I didn't expect this because of all the hard work we had to do after going the wrong way with the suspension on Thursday. The team worked very hard all day Friday, looking at the data and working out what we needed to do. Even then, though, I was not completely confident in the car this morning, but it was getting better, and felt good in qualifying. In fact, I could have gone even quicker, but came across traffic - particularly on my last run.''

''I just want to thank everyone in the team for all of their hard work. The car now seems very well suited to the track, and I am looking forward to the race.''

David Coulthard:

''I must admit, I was expecting to qualify on the front row after being quick in all the practice sessions. In hindsight, though, I was probably a bit too cautious on my first run to make sure that I got a decent time. We improved the car throughout the qualifying, and definitely had the potential to go even quicker. Unfortunately, I got caught up in traffic or yellow flags on my subsequent runs, but that is Monaco for you. Wurz had gone off, and I had to lift a fraction as I went past. You've got to remember, though, that you don't score points for qualifying. The car feels really good, and I'm sure I can make a race of it tomorrow.''

Heinz-Harald Frentzen:

''I am very upset with Eddie Irvine! It looked like he had a problem with his car, but he chose to still go into the tunnel even though he was going slowly. The light is bad in there, and he endangered other drivers by doing that. It cost me and Jarno time on our last laps, and I am disappointed because the car was fine, despite having lost running time in the morning. It was nicely balanced for the circuit, and I really feel that there was more to come. The second row of the grid is okay, but it could have been much better, particularly at a track where overtaking is impossible and grid positions are even more important than usual.''

Mika Hakkinen:

''It's been a frustrating session for me, so I know I have a tough job ahead of me tomorrow. Obviously I'm not where I want to be for the race, but it just seemed that, whenever I was on a flying lap, I was caught in traffic or the yellow flags came out, and I had to go back to the pits and try again. As a result, we were not able to maximise our performances today. Monaco is one of those places where you can lose out very easily if you are not in the right place at the right time, but tomorrow is another day and I'm looking forward to a competitive race.''

Rubens Barrichello:

''I did all I could in this qualifying session on a track I like a lot. However, I was unable to improve the car's performance from this morning. Yesterday, we did some good work, but there are still some aspects of the set-up to improve on, as the car feels nervous. If we can find the right solution, I am sure I can have a good race. I am happy for Michael, who did a brilliant job.''

Jean Alesi:

''It was a very exciting session for everybody, but very tiring for the team, who had to change all my gearbox ratios before qualifying began. It did not feel perfect to me during the morning free practice session, when I had some ratio problems. Then, very early this afternoon, I had an alternator problem and so had to switch to the spare car.''

''At these times, I always wonder if it is going to work well as, even with an identical set-up, two cars don't always behave in the same way. Fortunately, the spare went very well. Thanks to some good advice from 'the professor', we only had to make a few refined adjustments, and I was able to extract the maximum from my car in the final seconds.''

Giancarlo Fisichella:

''The circuit was very different from this morning and, as well as understeer, I had quite a bit of oversteer too. So the car was quite nervous and I couldn't push as hard as I wanted to. It's frustrating because I was confident here yesterday and this morning, and expected to qualify much higher.''

Ralf Schumacher:

''I had, in my mind, a realistic target of being in the top six on the grid here, and I think that would have been possible but, unfortunately, on my last run, Eddie Irvine slowed me down a bit on what would have been my best lap. We've improved the car a little more since practice, and I'm quite confident about the race.''

Eddie Irvine:

''I had big expectations for today, but it didn't work out. On my last flying lap, I had a [power] steering failure at the entrance to the Swimming Pool, which meant that the car got out of shape and ruined what was a really good lap. I definitely had a low 1min 20secs in me for sure. I was also held up a couple of times on quick laps, including the last one and, if you catch traffic here, you're gone. The car felt pretty good, and I called a good lap early on, which set the tone for what I hoped was going to be a top six qualifying slot. I'm really disappointed with tenth - we're much better than that.''

Jean Todt [Team manager - Ferrari]:

''This is Ferrari's third pole of the season, and Michael's second, so we are happy with the result. Michael put in a great performance, while Rubens is on the third row with a car which he felt was a bit nervous. Tomorrow, this race, which is always long and tough, will be even more so because of the heat. We will have to make a good start and then run reliably. Strategy will be very important.''

Ron Dennis [Team principal - McLaren]:

''Considering the circumstances, David did an excellent job to qualify third on the grid. However, Mika had one of the most dramatic qualifying sessions that we have ever experienced at Monaco. All of his first three runs were, in one way or another, dramatically slowed by other peoples' accidents. His last run was therefore executed with a degree more caution than is required to attack for the pole and, ultimately, fifth place was somewhat of a relief. At the end of the day, as history shows, you can win even this race from third or fifth on the grid. As always, we are now concentrating on tomorrow's race.''

Johnny Herbert:

''I'm disappointed with the final positions today. It's nice to be so close to Eddie, but we'd rather be higher up the gird. We're still very up and down with our performances, so we're going to have to work hard to find the consistency. We're not in a good place for the start, as mid-grid is where all the trouble usually happens at Monaco, and we don't want any of that as we've worked hard on the car this weekend, and have made it a lot better.''

Alex Wurz:

''My first three runs were okay but, as always, the last one was the most important. I got caught in a bit of traffic, so used the dirty line, but my tyres picked up some dirt and I hit the barrier going into the Swimming Pool section. I'm obviously disappointed because my split times were good, so I know I could have pulled up a few places.''

Mika Salo:

''My first two runs went okay, and I was pleased with the car's handling balance and traction. But I'm frustrated because I know the package we have here is much better than 13th place. We are good enough to be well into the top ten, but I was really unlucky with the two attempts I made for the last two runs. Both times I had to slow down because of yellow flags where other drivers had gone off. The track was getting better all the time, though, which makes it even more frustrating.''

Jenson Button:

''I was on the last lap of my final run [when I caught traffic] and the circuit was at its quickest. I had been quicker than my previous best in first two of the three sectors of the track, but then one of the Benettons spun at the Swimming Pool, and that was it. Fourteenth is a bit disappointing, but we'll just have to try and improve it for the race tomorrow.''

Jos Verstappen:

''It has been a very difficult time for us in Monaco and still is. Since this morning we have changed the car so much and even for qualifying we changed springs, tyres, pressures, nearly everything, and I must say that I had a much better car in qualifying than I did in practice so, in that respect, we made progress. We still have to work harder though to find more front grip. My 15th position on the grid will make tomorrow difficult, as it's impossible to overtake, but that's how it is and we have to make the best of it.''

Pedro de la Rosa:

''It's always the same, you make a mistake and you pay for it, and I made a mistake coming into Rascasse on my third run, braked too late, lost the rear end and then crashed. I took the T-car for the last run, but I had a problem coming into the chicane with the gears, and had to come into the pits. I'm really disappointed as I had much more in myself to give and, after practice this morning, I thought I would do a better job. But this is Monaco, and if you don't qualify well then the race is a very hard job.''

Jacques Villeneuve:

''I had a problem on my first run, and had to run back to the pits - although that was no problem. Unfortunately, the spare car had been sitting in the sun, and was quite hot when I climbed into it. My first run was okay but, on my second, someone spun and I did a slow out lap with the result that the tyre pressures dropped. On my nest run, I spun, but had enough fuel for a final attempt. Unfortunately, on the way into the pits, I was stopped at the weighbridge, and there wasn't enough time left to go out again. Quite honestly, whether its 17th or 14th position makes very little difference. We can afford to take risks in the race tomorrow and just see what happens.''

Nick Heidfeld:

''Obviously, I am not too happy to be in 18th position on the grid. I think this is because I lost a lot of practice time on Thursday, particularly when I lost most of the second session due to my crash and, today, when I lost nearly all of the second session because a marshal touched my car to push me off the racing line. I was not allowed to carry on because he had pushed my car, so I was not able to find a good set-up for this afternoon.''

Pedro Diniz:

''Maybe for me there was a little bit of a knock-on effect from my accident on Thursday, but the real problem was the time we lost for working on set-up. When I first went out this afternoon, I really didn't like the feel of the car, so we changed a lot for my second and third runs. I improved on both, but the downshift was getting difficult on the last one and, halfway round the slowing down lap, I had to stop when the problem got worse.''

Ricardo Zonta:

''I had fun driving here today and, for me, it was quite a good qualifying session because my times were close to Jacques' throughout. The only problem is that we don't have enough downforce on the car and that cost us. I drove on the limit of the car every time I was on the track, so I enjoyed myself today despite the result.''

Marc Gene:

''I honestly believe I did my best today. On the third run, I was pushing hard when I lost the rear of the car under braking. I switched to the spare but, with only one run available, it was really difficult to improve my time. I don't know what has changed since Thursday, but this morning we were already slower on new tyres, and I realised that our potential was not at its best. I feel really disappointed because I was sure I could do a better performance.''

Gaston Mazzacane:

''I did not expect to do such a poor qualifying session, because I had the feeling I could better exploit this circuit compared with other circuits, and better exploit my car's potential, but things turned out differently even though I did my best. Unfortunately, on my last run, when I was four-tenths quicker, I hit the barrier with my rear tyre without major consequences, but I jeopardised the lap which would have been my best. I feel very disappointed - it is the first time we have been so far from pole this year. I still hope to do a good race tomorrow and, more importantly, to be able to finish it, given that this will be one of the toughest races of the season.''

Alain Prost [Team principal - Prost GP]:

''At the start of qualifying, when Jean had to change to the spare car, we truly feared that all our work would go to waste, all that we have done in these last few months and, particularly, this weekend. Fortunately, we reacted very well, the spare car was ready and Jean drove a quite fantastic lap. I believe that all of us should be happy, not only because of the visible progress we have made but, also, above all, for the new atmosphere and rediscovered motivation in the team. It is a pleasure to find such morale and spirit.''

Takefumi Hosaka [Managing director - Honda R&D]:

''Jacques was very unfortunate today, both with the engine in his race car and with the time he lost at the end. We do not know the nature of the problem yet, but we will investigate it thoroughly. Ricardo is doing a good job considering he has not been here before and is still learning the circuit.''

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