28/09/2002

United States Grand Prix - Qualifying

Allan McNish and Mika Salo will start from only 16th and 19th positions on the grid for tomorrow's United States Grand Prix after a difficult and disappointing qualifying session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today.

Allan McNish - Car No. 25

Position:	16th 1m12.723s 11/12 laps completed
Chassis:	TF102/08

"We certainly improved the car balance from this morning's practice session however we struggled with understeer throughout the qualifying hour. Having said that it was consistent and we will be in reasonable shape for the race tomorrow. Everyone put in a great effort to get the best out the car today and I am hoping for better things tomorrow."

Mika Salo - Car No. 24

Position:	19th 1m13.213s 11/12 laps completed
Chassis:	TF102/07

"The car this morning was relatively good and we only made minor changes in the afternoon. But in qualifying the car completely lost grip and my best time was over half-a-second slower than this morning. Clearly we had something wrong but we'll have to find out exactly what. The wheel sensor broke on my final run so we lost a final opportunity. We have plenty of positions to make up tomorrow so we will have to reduce the downforce level to make the car go faster on the main straight to give us the chance to overtake."

Keizo Takahashi - Technical Co-Ordinator
"We made no major changes to either of the TF102s since this morning's free practice sessions but both drivers struggled a lot in qualifying to find a good feeling in the cars. It was a difficult session and we will sit down this afternoon to find the root of the problems and make the necessary modifications before tomorrow. We are starting quite far back for the race so we have a real challenge on our hands."

Weather:	Dry with sunny spells
Temperatures:	Air - Min 23 Max 25 Track Min 30 Max 34 Average Humidity 50%
T-car:	TF102/06 set up for Allan McNish

Review
Mika and Allan were relatively pleased following Friday's free practice sessions. On the team's first trip to Indianapolis both drivers worked on learning the track race set-up and tyre comparisons. Mika was 12th completing 30 laps with a best time of 1m13.523s. A driveshaft problem delayed Allan's first session but the Scot amassed 48 laps and put in a fastest lap of 1m14.232s.