The first new-format Friday qualifying session saw the Jordan Fords of Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman finish 14th and 17th respectively after encountering balance problems during the course of their one-lap qualifying run.  Both drivers reported difficulties with understeer worsening towards the end of their laps.  Firman ran wide and onto the grass at the end of his lap but managed to control the car and regain the track after a few metres.

Giancarlo Fisichella said, "For me the main challenge was that in this morning’s free session I had a problem with the car which meant that I lost the last 25 minutes of set-up work, so qualifying has been very difficult.  We know we have to make some progress.  During the qualifying run the car was not to bad over the first few corners but then I had some graining on the front tyres and that caused the car to have behave inconsistently over the last part of the lap.”

Ralph Firman was disappointed but philosophical about his lap. “I am very disappointed but it was my first time qualifying the car and I was still learning a lot about the circuit.  What counts is Sunday.  I was driving as hard as I could to find the limit and pushed a little too hard when I was picking up understeer towards the end of the lap.  The tyres had started to go off and we’ll have to look at that and understand what was happening so that we can make the most of tomorrow.”

Gary Anderson, Jordan Ford's Director of Race and test Engineering, was relatively upbeat in his assessment of today's performance.  “Generally it was ok, I am not too disappointed.  I think we should have done a little bit better, Giancarlo lost some time in T2, perhaps two or three tenths which cost us three or four places.  I feel we could have nipped into the top ten.  Ralph made a little mistake on the last sector and could have been a little bit better, but you only have a one lap hit so it’s pretty unforgiving.  The important thing is the race on Sunday.”