Giancarlo Fisichella’s fifth place today gave DHL Jordan Honda its best qualifying result of the season. Takuma Sato had a run of bad luck, including a gearbox oil leak which forced him to change to the T-car ten minutes before the session ended, and with only one clean outing he was not able to improve on 14th position.
GIANCARLO FISICHELLA P5 – 1.14.880
“This is another good qualifying result and my best this year, so I’m very pleased. We’ve been quick all weekend and yesterday I was confident that we could be on the front three or four rows. Fifth is great for the race start tomorrow and I’m feeling positive and very strong mentally. Physically, it’s going to be a very difficult race, but I’m confident. I like the circuit and I hope to score points.“
TAKUMA SATO P14 – 1.15.804
“What bad luck. I aborted my first attack when a Renault spun in front of me and I set my fastest time on the second outing. On the third run I could see smoke coming from the car and some oil was leaking out. I jumped into the T-car for my final attempt but unfortunately it wasn’t quite the same as my race car. We had a few problems with it, which limited our chance of improving.”
GARY ANDERSON
DIRECTOR OF RACE AND TEST ENGINEERING
“So far it’s been a very satisfying weekend. Giancarlo’s fifth place is our highest grid position this year and the best qualifying result today for Bridgestone, apart from the Ferraris, who, after all, are not in the same league as the rest of us! I’m very pleased for Giancarlo because this is where he deserves to be. Tomorrow we have got to try and get a good race out of the position. Takuma’s race car had an oil leak and he had to get into the spare car for his last run. It’s never the same and there were a few problems so alas, the last-minute effort to move him up wasn’t to be.”
The T car is set up for Giancarlo Fisichella for tomorrow’s race.