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28-jul-2001
Saturday Qualifying - German Grand Prix 2001 Season A blown engine spoiled Jarno Trulli's chances of improving on 10th place on the grid during qualifying for tomorrow's German Grand Prix. A problem with traffic and a small mistake meant that the second Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda of Ricardo Zonta will start from 15th place.
'The car wasn't bad but it was a tough job,' said Trulli. 'I was trying hard but unfortunately I had a problem and had to stop at the far end of the circuit, really far away. The marshals weren't very professional because they didn't know where to send me; I had to look for the best way back but once I had found it, there was not enough time left to get back to the pits to take the spare car.'
'On my first set of tyres, the lap was quite good,' said Zonta. 'Panis just blocked me in the stadium section at the end of the lap and I lost a lot of time. On the second set of tyres, I did my lap time. On the third try, I was up half a second but I made a mistake at the third chicane and touched a kerb, which cost me time. On the last set of tyres, the car was better but I didn't want to make a mistake. Even so, I was aware I should be more on the limit and push harder. The car was better but my lap time wasn't. In the beginning, the car had been understeering. We made some changes and it was a lot better. Since I have been given this opportunity it would have been nice to qualify well but I still hope to have a good race. I lost a lot of time this morning but the mechanics did a great job when the car had a problem and they needed to change the engine and the gearbox.'
'It's very disappointing,' said Eddie Jordan. 'Jarno was a bit unlucky because he lost an engine on his third run, which meant he lost that and his fourth run. So he had to rely on his first two runs and I'm sure he could have gone a bit quicker. It was also disappointing that Ricardo should have been badly blocked on one of his laps. He lost that run and never really regained his momentum after that. It's been a struggle for us here this weekend and we need to find more speed. So, now we have to concentrate on reliability because traditionally this is a race of attrition. We just need to try and be there at the end.'
Qualifying was dominated by the Williams team, Juan Pablo Montoya edging out Ralf Schumacher by 0.019 secs to take his first F1 pole position. The Williams pair were more than half a second faster than Mika Hakkinen despite the McLaren driver saying he had never had a better handling car at Hockenheim. Handling and tyre problems meant David Coulthard was relegated to fifth place behind the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher.
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Jordan Grand Prix
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